# Awww shucks, it was just gettin' good . . . **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 18, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293 "2001-10-18T20:24:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/1 "2001-10-18T20:24:08Z")
That Armchair thread was fun so far. Everyone was playing it cool. It coulda been funny. Oh well. Meanies. But seriously . . . I said: > [@](#): > > ::Lays on couch:: And then **Lib** said: > [@](#): > > And what exactly did you lay there? An egg, maybe? I assume I used the wrong word. What is the proper way to say “lays on couch” without implying that I passed an egg (the hard way)? DaLovin’ Dj ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/2 "2001-10-18T20:26:51Z")
Lies on couch? ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/3 "2001-10-18T20:28:32Z")
I guess you’re just too wild for this crowd. ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/4 "2001-10-18T20:33:35Z")
> [@](#): > > I guess you’re just too wild for this crowd. Hard to believe given some of the sex threads I’ve read! > [@](#): > > Lies on couch? If that’s true I am so mad at myself. Not only did I say it incorrectly, but I missed an opportunity for an ironic play on words. Grrrrrrrrr. That thread could have been so much more. A moment of silence for what should have been . . .All right enough of that, I gotta go get drunk. DaLovin’ Dj ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/5 "2001-10-18T20:35:37Z")
“Lie” is what you do yourself. “Lay” is what you do to something (or someone) else. So you lie down, but you lay the book down. If the object (thing) being set down is not the subject of the sentence, then you use “lay;” if it is the subject of the sentence, then you use “lie.” I have to lie down, I have to lay this burden down. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/6 "2001-10-18T20:46:45Z")
dalovindj Dude, I like some of your hipness threads and shit like that, and I do enjoy some of your cafe posts but this is trolling. Erek ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/7 "2001-10-18T20:58:09Z")
A factual grammar question is trolling? Wrong forum, maybe, but not trolling. **mswas** , you are…nah, been there too often. ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/8 "2001-10-18T20:59:02Z")
**mswas** > [@](#): > > Dude, I like some of your hipness threads and shit like that, and I do enjoy some of your cafe posts but this is trolling. Glad you have enjoyed some of my posts. I don’t think that thread was trolling. This stuff pops up alot here. There is a huge tendency lately to try to analyze(sp?) this board and it’s inhabitants. Rather than beat around the bush in this thread and that, I thought it would be cool for people to have a forum to just come out and do it. I was hoping for a self-depricating, good-intentioned, and comedic type of thread. Some seem to think it was going to turn into a mean-spirited fuck-you type of thread. Guess we’ll never know. DaLovin’ Dj ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/9 "2001-10-18T21:07:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jodi \* > **"Lie" is what you do yourself. “Lay” is what you do to something (or someone) else.** Given that, you’d think dalovindj would be intimately familiar with the difference! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/10 "2001-10-18T21:09:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mswas \* > \*\*dalovindj > > Dude, I like some of your hipness threads and shit like that, and I do enjoy some of your cafe posts but this is trolling. > > Erek \*\* Are you talking about _this_ thread, or the armchair thread? Because if you’re talking about this thread, I don’t see it. And if you’re talking about the other thread, I think it was pretty clear that dalovindj wasn’t being intentionally incindiary. It wasn’t entirely thought out, IMO, but was intended to be harmless. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/11 "2001-10-18T21:15:27Z")
> [@](#): > > “Lie” is what you do yourself. “Lay” is what you do to something (or someone) else. Close but no cigar. Lie is an intransitive verb, lay is _always_ transitive. In other words, lie does not require a direct object, and lay does. It is perfectly correct, if a bit stilted, to say “I lay myself down.” But without the direct object, it’s wrong. It is basically the same distinction between the verbs hang and hang. “He was hanged.” “He hung the picture on the wall.” Hang, hanged is intransitive, while hang, hung is always transitive. MR ---
**Author:** ![k.os](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@k.os](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k.os)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/12 "2001-10-18T21:22:07Z")
The only trolling I saw on the other thread was when **Esprix** came in to tell us: > [@](#): > > Oh, I can see this getting very nasty very fast. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if if the mods were to close it for the potential nastiness or for outright trolling. (And since this now makes me a target, I will say that if anyone decides to psychoanalyze me, I’m pre-emptively > warning you I will not take it as humorous. You have been warned.) ---
**Author:** ![Abe\_Babe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Abe\_Babe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe_Babe)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/13 "2001-10-18T21:36:51Z")
What happened to the armchair thread? Did it get taken away by the black helicopters? ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/14 "2001-10-18T21:39:20Z")
And that would be trolling… how, exactly? Esprix ---
**Author:** ![k.os](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@k.os](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k.os)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/15 "2001-10-18T21:55:43Z")
Well, I thought it very much on the trollish side, since you came in the thread only to say that you were sure it was going to be closed. And the part about ‘warning’ us seemed a little over the top. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy most of your posts. I just find your unending attacks on some posters here tiring. If you have a problem with someone, start a thread or take it to email. Don’t go arround pissing on people’s threads because you don’t like them. You don’t like **DaLovinDJ**. We get it. Now, unless he starts insulting you, leave him alone, please. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/16 "2001-10-18T22:00:15Z")
MAEG, _mon ami_, what you said is the same as what I said, only you said it better. I said “lie is what you do yourself” – not “lie is what you do _to_ yourself.” I realize the confusion arises when a person iss doing something _to_ him or herself, and is therefore both the subject and the object, but really how often does that come up with this meaning of “lie”? Only when you’re laying yourself down. And when does this meaning of “lie” _ever_ take a direct object? I can’t think of an example. If there’s an object involved – including the self – then the correct word is “lay.” So I wasn’t \*wrong – God forbid, right? – just totally unclear. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/17 "2001-10-18T22:07:40Z")
I’m sorry, when did voicing an opinion equate to trolling? And where, exactly, did I attack **dalovindj**? I saw the thread, I saw it was a bad idea, and I said as much (and I obviously wasn’t off the mark, as **John** closed the thread and agreed with me). I don’t care if **Polycarp** had posted it, I would have said the same thing. And I posted the rest because I knew just by posting something in the thread I would more than likely become a subject for the OP (as **Izzy** so predictably proved :rolleyes: ). If you tell me you can’t see that that thread had the potential for becoming an all-out flame-fest, then I’d say it’s time to clean off that monitor screen. It seems the OP could have been interpreted as trolling, not anything I said in response. It also seems a moderator agreed. Do you still have a point, or does that pretty much sum it up? Esprix ---
**Author:** ![k.os](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@k.os](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k.os)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/18 "2001-10-18T22:14:16Z")
**Esprix** Ok, I misread your post then. I know the thread _could_ have turned ugly, but it could also have remained in good fun. A lot of threads could turn ugly. I just saw your post as a self-fulfilling prophecy. No hard feelings here, and I hope I did not cause any on your side. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/19 "2001-10-18T22:17:25Z")
**John Corrado** , would you have closed that thread whether or not I had posted in it? Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293/20 "2001-10-19T00:17:14Z")
> [@](#): > > MAEG, mon ami, what you said is the same as what I said, only you said it better. I said “lie is what you do yourself” – not “lie is what you do to yourself.” **Jodi** , _ma fiancée_, you are actually still a little south of unclear. 🙂 Whether or not you are doing it to yourself is not really the issue. That property of a verb is called _reflexivity_. Either lay or lie can be reflexive. So reflexivity or lack thereof is not a useful distinction to make between the two. > [@](#): > > I realize the confusion arises when a person iss doing something to him or herself, and is therefore both the subject and the object, but really how often does that come up with this meaning of “lie”? Exactly never, because lie is always intransitive. 😉 But yes, I think we really are in fundamental agreement here. Marvelous to tell. 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-shucks-it-was-just-gettin-good/88293.md?page=2)