Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with common

I like not catching colds, but I also like kissing my wife

ManInSuit — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:42:13 -0800

If your spouse catches a cold, how likely are you to catch it from them? When your spouse gets a cold, what, if anything, do you do to avoid catching that cold, and why?

I wonder about this every time Mrs ManInSuit gets sick. I want to be nice to her, and enjoy her company. I also don’t want to get that cold. I wish I had a better sense of what the real risks are. So, say your spouse starts having cold symptoms (and you don’t have any). Here are some imagined possibilities of what that means:

Imagined Possibility #1 – By the time your spouse shows symptoms, you’ve already been exposed like crazy to their cold. If you haven’t caught it by now, it means you’re immune to that particular strain. So, like, don’t worry about it.

Imagined Possibility #2 – The fact that haven’t caught your spouse’s cold so far just just means you’ve been very lucky. If you want to avoid that cold, you should start being careful: keep your distance, don’t share cutlery, wash your hands a lot, etc. Otherwise, you’re pretty likely to get that cold.

Imagined Possibility #3 – Cold transmission is a pretty unpredictable and unreliable thing. For each day you spend with your spouse, there’s a chance you’ll get sick. But even if you’re totally incautious, the odds are you still won’t get that cold.

Can anyone shed light on which, if any, of these are most accurate. I suspect the truth is some complicated combination or in-between of all the above, but I’d like whatever insights the green might offer. Insights backed with reliable scientific sources or expertise are epecially helpful...

You found WHAT in your drawer?

MaryDellamorte — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:54:22 -0800

Inspired by this question and this comment, I'm curious to know about other things of this nature. Occurances that, to an outsider, seem completely crazy but are common in daily life in certain places in the world.

Good examples of intercultural communications based on ideograms or common concepts?

Bio11 — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:13:04 -0800

Good examples of intercultural communications based on ideograms or common concepts? I'm not working in this field and I need very comprehensive examples, or descriptive experiments. I'm wondering what kind of grammar would be involved between an english and a mandarin speaker, for instance. Regarding the vocabulary used, what would be a bare minimum (In term of quantity and precision?)
Online resources arewelcome, of course. Thanks.

I've got an itchy trigger finger and a runny nose

EL-O-ESS — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:05:28 -0800

Why does the cold virus always make my index finger itch? Since I was a teenager, every time I get a full-on cold, on about the second or third day of symptoms the exact same spot on the exact same finger will begin to itch like mad. It's the patch of skin between the middle and top knuckle of my index finger on my dominant hand, and I can time my colds by it. After a day of itching, a few tiny, clear hives will appear and it will continue to itch, becoming slightly swollen, until the cold is gone. A few days after the cold is gone, the skin that was inflamed is thick and dry and simply peels off.

I don't get colds much anymore (knock wood), but for a while this would happen like clockwork, and I could tell how bad a cold was going to be based on when it started itching. I know I'm fully over the cold when my finger starts peeling.

So what's going on?

I'm aware that hives (if that's what this is) can be a histamine reaction caused by the cold virus, but I'm looking for as much info as I can get about specific processes involved, and why it's always this one spot. As far as I can recall, there's never been any trauma associated with this magical spot on my most beloved finger.

Can they really make me do that?

stormygrey — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:46:25 -0800

Quasi legal status filter: There are a lot of things out there that I take for granted as legal till I think about it. How can you find out what the actual legal standing of an issue is? I am not saying that perhaps these aren't moral or whatever obligations, just perhaps not legally enforcible.

Here are a couple:

"You break it, you buy it"

"May I please see your receipt?" (especially coupled with physical restraint or intimidation if you don't show it)

"Oh barkeep, someone walked out on their tab? Its coming out of your pocket!"

"15 minute Dry Cleaning Parking Only!"(In large shared parking lot, that space is not theirs!)

Google and such provide sketchy answers on the legality even if I am a little confrontational at times. I would just like to know where the law stands.

Identify this hip-hop song please?

phyrewerx — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 22:17:48 -0800

Does this hip-hop song ring a bell? It was produced in the last two years. It talked talked about either dead rappers, or famous rappers. The style of music was similar to those by K-OS or Common. Please hope me?

Generation to generation debt

iTristan — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 07:39:15 -0800

Is family debt passed on from generation to generation anymore? We have a family member (father) who has gotten himself in some crazy debt. We're considering our options for dealing with this debt, but meanwhile the question has crossed our minds: does a non-immediate family member's (not living in your household) financial obligations pass on to their offspring should they pass away?

Anecdotally I recall this being an old tradition but I have no idea if this is a practice today.

Legally, we're bound by Canadian common law.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of situation?

How much does a bubble mailer + 2 dvds + a case weigh?

anonymoose — Fri, 26 May 2006 00:22:22 -0800

PostOfficeAvoidanceFilter: Has anyone made a weight calculator (or just recorded weights of commonly mailed objects) such that I can figure out how much a double DVD case, 2 dvds, and a bubble mailer would typically weigh? I imagine the variance between different 6x9 bubble mailers is relatively small, and the variance between different brands of DVD cases also small. Surely there's a way for me to spend a great deal of time successfully avoiding a trip to the post office.

(No, I unfortunately do not yet own a kitchen scale)

Alternatively, if anyone frequently sells DVDs on ebay and knows how heavy this thing is, that would do in a pinch.

Common Words

booksprite — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:06:20 -0800

Do you know any words which are common to many languages? I’m interested in compiling a list of words which are commonly used in a range of different languages – the wider the range the better.

An example would be the Latin word veto, which according to Babel Fish is the same in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch.

The words don’t necessarily have to mean the same thing and may be proper nouns – but in order to keep things simple I would prefer to avoid technical words, such as chemical names.

Any ideas?

Most common English words

inquisitive — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 09:57:09 -0800

What are the 500 most commonly used words in the English language ? Where can I get such a list ? I am trying to learn a new regional language. And this list of 500 most common English words will help me get up to speed in my learning effort by finding out their equivalent in the regional language.

Dropping in

terrier319 — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:22:31 -0800

My wife thinks it is perfectly acceptable for family and neighbors to drop by our house unexpectedly. I disagree, believing that people should call before they come -- whether it is to return a loaned chair or drop in to say hi. What is your view?