Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for March 05, 2019

Linguistics can be furtive.

Danae and quirks, hmmmm.

Ask the furries what the correct term is.

I think Danae has already asked Uncle Bob.

Our newspaper recently dropped Non Sequitur due to a tiny “oops” in the corner of a frame. But I MUST have it to keep my mind straight. See you tomorrow! : )

English is funny, but it can be understood through though thought

The world is full of cultural quirks and just plain quirks. America elected Trump so figure that one out.

If it’s called fur then why are the ones without any call hairless?

From what my horse owning friend tell me, horses that live in the wild don’t look shiny and smooth in winter like horses in westerns. Is that due to longer coats?

As someone online put it, “English is three other languages in a trenchcoat that keep stealing stuff from other languages.”

Dog hair and cat hair sounds right to me.

Wouldn’t we humans look wacky if we had fur on our heads!

My favorite is FlutterBys became ButterFlies.

Danae needs to get Capt’n Eddie to explain it…

Our dog, a party poodle, has hair, which needs trimming. Most dogs have fur, which sheds.

And thus the great debate begins between the Hair Party and the Fur Party. You’re either on one side or the other. Let’s Make America Hairy Again.

Gimme a head with hair! Long, beautiful hair!…..

If stink is to stench as drink is to drench what is the relation between wink and wench?

Analytic philosophy is a hole you do not want to dive into. I know. I’ve tried.

Actually, I thought that was a pretty good answer.

Actually, hair and fur in dogs are distinct, too—most dogs have hair, while only the double coated breeds have fur (huskies, Malamutes, etc). Horses have hair in a single layer, but they have summer and winter coats—the winter coat actually has hollow, wavy hairs, designed to trap heat, so really, their coat works more like ‘fur’ if we’re considering the dog…and… yeah, linguistics is weird.

Linguistics or politics? – I would rather discuss the former.

This doesn’t really answer Danae’s question but concerning cats and dogs: if it’s on the cat or dog it’s usually called fur, off the animal it’s hair. As in “That cat has really soft fur.” and “There’s dog hair all over the couch!” But then we have the fur coat! Ah the English language!

It’s these types of linguistic anomalies that keep me awake at nights,

cunning

Dwagons haz scales. Hair is irrelevant, because scales is so much superior. Dat said… hair and fur is made of same stuff, but can take different composition. For example, fur of polar bear is hollow, whereas humans is not. The use of “fur” or “hair” is pretty much grammatical, in most cases hair referring to humans and fur referring to other mammals. However, there is “horse hair” bows that comes from tails, and while dogs have fur, we often refer to “the hair of the dog” in relation to drinking. Dolphins are spoken of as having fine, baby-like hair rather than baby-like fur. So like so very many words in the language, context is everything. Otherwise we get ourselves into furry situations. Oh wait, hairy situations. And I’ve never met a man named Furry, but seen lots of guys named… uh… neber mind.

fur-sure, man

Being hirsutely handicapped, I have no opinion on this matter. (Translation: I’m bald. I don’t care one way or the other.)

Never try to inject logic into a language’s grammar.

It’s quite simple. To be fur it has to be long enough for humans to use as garments. A horse coat is too short for that, so it is hair, not fur.

Technology is designed. Language just develops.

Whatever you call it, with cats there’s always plenty of it around.

A: Horses have hair and not fur. Although there is no difference between hair and fur, a horse’s coat is called hair because it is not dense enough for humans to use as garments.

But what about Hair of the Dog? “Now You’re Messin’ With a Son of a B____.”

Fur is soft and fluffy…. hair is coarse.

I’m confused??!!

I’ve always called the covering on my dogs “hair” as it’s made up of easily identifiable pieces and needs periodic trimming. Fur, on the other hand, is so dense that any shedding is not easily seen (i.e., mink) and doesn’t need trimming; and then horses – “horsehair” which doesn’t need trimming, just brushing. … or is it a case of usage depending on where you grew up?

p.s. my dog’s hair is soft and fluffy, and is not fur.

This is a lot deeper than a lot of people realize! :)

Never try to apply Logic to anything produced by mingling the quirks of several Million Humans as they mash together words taken from at least 6 different languages to create “English”.

Never heard of cat or dog fur. Cat or dog hair is usually used.

Depends on what fur you are talking about. The body fur on a horse is similar to the fur of other animals. The mane and tail structure is more like the structure of human hair. So a horse has both fur and hair. Cats and dogs just have fur, humans just have hair.

anyone got one of those antique books? I think they were called encyclopedias. I’m sure there is a definitive explanation to be found there from back in the day when facts were printed in an unchangeable format, until they printed a new edition at least.