祝你生日快樂,xiamenese

Happy Birthday, Master Mark.
May the firmament be always bathed in your aura, as you jostle for your rightful place amongst the stars. :blush:
youtube.com/watch?v=z08jGpgr43Y

Hope it’s a good one, Master Mark :smiley:

What? He’s older? I thought he did that last year?

Happy B-day Mr X.

Look Mr X, there’s no point trying to keep in the lead. I know you’re still trying to beat me because every time I have a birthday, a couple of months later you have one. You might think you’re clever, trying to stay that extra year older than me, but the jokes on you: every additional year of my life is a larger proportion of my age than the same year is as a proportion of yours. Therefore, I am clearly ageing faster than you. Ha!

Oh… :blush:

Er… Happy birthday anyway Mr X! I baked you one of my special forum birthday cakes (with coloured candles*) and, as a special peace offering, made it extra large…

[size=200]iii[/size]

[size=85]*apparently the explanation is necessary :unamused: [/size]

Thanks so much people, for wishes, whisky and cakes. :slight_smile:

As for you getting older faster than me (and the illustrious Vic-K!) on statistical grounds — who was it who said, “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics!”? — as time flies more quickly, the older you get — I’m sure the illustrious Vic-K, will confirm that — my years go by more quickly than yours, so I am ageing faster than you!

The only thing to do is enjoy the cake and whisky and cock a snook at the passing of time!

:smiley:

Mr X

Up to you, Vic. I need no confirmation, though the headless one and his NOMsensicality might query my use of language.

:smiley:

Mr X

Happy birthday to the only person crazy enough who runs Scrivener with WINE on a Mac :laughing:

Happy birthday, Mark. Enjoy the day (or what’s left of it).

Thank you, garpu.

I am not that crazy to run Scrivener like that all the time … it’s only when working with my collaborator, who uses Windows, and we’re dealing with Chinese. Apple and Qt each use a different alternative addressing system for high-end UTF-8 which makes sharing between platforms an impossibility. For all my own work, I’ve been using Scrivener on my Macs since Dec ’06/Jan ’07.

:slight_smile:

Mr X

Thank you; a nice quiet day, which is what I want — even as a child, birthdays were insignificant, with going out for a good meal somewhere between my brother’s birthday and mine being the nearest thing to a birthday celebration.

:slight_smile:

Mr X

Not me: I’d never question your use of language. Your age, yes. Your taste, yes. Even your sanity (using “vic-k” and “illustrious” in the same sentence, but without irony, is a disturbing sign - that would probably be seen as evidence of disordered thought in a psychiatric mental state exam). But never your use of language.

[size=85]P.S. Glad to read you had a quiet, pleasant day. [/size]
[size=50]P.P.SIf I make the the text small enough…[/size]
[size=30]you’ll have to guess the implied insult.[/size]
[size=10]P.P.P.S. But if you enlarge the text, the inference becomes even more direct. [/size] :wink:

Ah, but the point about querying my use of language was precisely to invite each of you to speculate on whether I was being ironic or not, provocative or not … or merely insane. I remain mum on that one, but clearly the comment worked! :smiley:

Mr X

A cunning plan well executed. It restores our faith in the wisdom of the elders while also providing a timely reminder to check our pockets before they leave…

A propos, in the “Pick of the week’s correspondence” page in The Week 13/09 edition, a quoted letter has the following anecdote from Peacham’s The Compleat Gentleman of 1622:

:smiley:

Mr X

Ha! :smiley:

~

Mr X, sorry to have missed the online celebrations, especially as I can deduce from Nom’s brightly coloured candles that you were three. Third birthday’s are always fun. :smiley:

Hope the family made all appropriate reverence. Your very good health, Sir.

That was not a nice trick sir. The mrs and I spent excessive time arguing over how long it would be before I gave in and used … the tricks of my elders … to read the last lines.

Mr X, as to your state of sanity, I request that you kindly recall your transcontinental DRIVE. I believe your sanity was well entrenched in a position of “laze-fare” abandonment well before the 365.25th day of your latest year passed into the tomes of history.

Glad to hear I’ve contributed to communication within a marriage.
I must also congratulate you on your tactical creativity: using an argument with your wife to delay her inevitable victory of that argument is inspired.