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I'm staying at a hotel in Paris, and I've tried to use the 'Do not disturb' sign to indicate that there's no need to make up my room, but housekeeping is still doing so anyway. Rather than bother reception about it, I'd like to leave a note that says 'There's no need to clean or tidy the room, but I would appreciate a change of towels. Thank you.' Do you know how to write this in French? Many thanks!
posted by Panthalassa at 4:39 AM - 6 answers

After more than a decade (with stops and starts), I've finished reading all 35 volumes in Gardner Dozois' series of short story anthologies, "The Year's Best Science Fiction." Whew! Along the way, I've bookmarked all the stories I enjoyed most and ranked the authors who've come up most often. I'd love your suggestions for any works (of any length) by these folks that I should check out. List inside! [more inside]
posted by DavidNYC at 8:18 AM - 32 answers

I hear the words "grift" and "grifter" thrown around a lot these days. I know it roughly means "crook" - the act of obtaining something illegally. My question is - I've observed the use of this word as also having connotations of cashing in on current trends/situations in an opportunistic fashion. Has the word "grift" actually developed that connotation, and if I want to emphasize the fact someone is specifically "cashing in" on a trend or movement, what word conveys it most succinctly? [more inside]
posted by Seeking Direction at 9:59 AM - 29 answers

Everybody says Octavia Butler is a visionary feminist SF writer. I vaguely remember reading some of her work aaaages ago (probably the Patternist series or parts of it), and not getting that vibe at all... like, it was all about men? [more inside]
posted by inexorably_forward at 12:59 PM - 19 answers

Help me find a missing piece of ridiculous short fanfiction. [more inside]
posted by socktopus at 10:18 PM - 4 answers

I haven't been able to get a hold of the English translation of Philippe Sollers' "Drame" (1965). Does anybody have it and could check how is the word "manqué" translated into English? It's already on the first page, the final word of the first passage. As far as I know, the text has been published both as "Event" and "Drama". Thank you!
posted by sapagan at 6:48 AM - 7 answers

Someone recommended a short story a couple of years ago, and now I can't find it. I'd rather not reach out to that person. Things I recall, but may no be iron-clad accurate: Written by Henning Mankell, it involved a boy, a spoon, and maybe something about poverty. Ring a bell?
posted by Cobalt at 10:09 AM - 3 answers

So close to beating my SpellTower score, and I’ve been stuck on this left column. Can you help? A few notes inside. [more inside]
posted by mermaidcafe at 5:53 PM - 6 answers

I am going through a difficult time and desperately need some light, undemanding, contemporary, funny fiction to get my mind off things. Last week I reread the entire Adrian Mole series over the course of a few days, and it was exactly what I needed. Can you recommend me anything in that vein, but more current? I'm out of the loop with regards to comic literature. [more inside]
posted by unicorn chaser at 4:50 PM - 23 answers

A few friends and I have been reading books together for the past few years. We keep an ongoing list of potential future reads, but given the current situation in the U.S., much of what’s on our list—and what we’ve read in the past—feels a bit too close for comfort and we are putting on the back burner for the time being. [more inside]
posted by nanook at 10:10 AM - 21 answers

When two different objects have the same name in a language e.g. straw for animals and a straw to drink out of, it's a homonym (or in this case homograph). How is it that other languages also use different words for the same pairs? For example in French, paille and paille meaning drinking straw and dried grass too.
posted by socky_puppy at 1:48 PM - 9 answers

I'm looking for poetic/metaphorical ways to refer to the day of the week Sunday. Like 'a day of rest'. Preferably not overtly religious like 'the day of the Lord'.
posted by falsedmitri at 10:47 AM - 14 answers

Just started reading D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers and wondered... how is the family’s last name pronounced? [more inside]
posted by dnash at 9:51 AM - 12 answers

From 「An Encounter」written by Joyce. "His parents went to eight-o'clock mass every morning in Gardiner Street and the peaceful odour of Mrs. Dillon was prevalent in the hall of the house." Why does he write 'eight-o'clock mass', instead of ' eight-o'clock Mass'?Isn't the m in Mass supposed to be capitalized?
posted by mizukko at 2:34 AM - 13 answers

How confident are you in your own pronunciation? If asked, do you just know how you pronounce something intrinsically and instantly, or do you have to think about it/say it out loud/record it? [starting a new thread so as not to derail another!] [more inside]
posted by seemoorglass at 2:28 PM - 35 answers

Bog, clog, cog, dog, flog, frog, hog, log, smog. Do all of these words rhyme for you, or does the "o" make different sounds in some of them? If the latter, what are the rhyming groups? [more inside]
posted by aws17576 at 9:40 PM - 73 answers

My stepmum told me about a book her mum used to tell her about with a passage about peas falling off a fork... she didn't know the name of the character.. she may have thought they were called Kit/similar.. she had told her it used to really make her own mum laugh. [more inside]
posted by tanktop at 4:29 AM - 4 answers

Poem filter: 20th century poem about Walt Whitman and his non-existent children [more inside]
posted by Ideal Impulse at 10:45 AM - 3 answers

I briefly saw a sponsored post on social media that I think was from an Israeli military organization (didn’t catch the account name). I didn’t understand the post: “Today, two soldiers fell during operational activity. We send condolences to the families of (name) and (name).” What does “operational activity” mean in this context?
posted by vanilla.extract at 7:37 AM - 4 answers

Wondering what people use Sharpie markers for - outside of signing autographs or signing executive orders!? [more inside]
posted by konaStFr at 4:51 AM - 74 answers