plug-in

[Mark Mandel]

I'm used to seeing "rat-tail", as in "a long stringy hairless appendage to
something", rather than "rat-tale". A case of Pied Piping, perhaps?

m a m

On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 1:12 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

>  A part of the problem is that the statement seems to imply that one
> plugs the computer into the adapter. This appears to defy normal
> interpretation. But it also suggests another physical ambiguity.
>
> Most laptops--Dell excepted--have a two-part connection to AC. There is
> a "brick"--the transformer--with a "rat-tale" and a separate cable that
> connects to the wall. The rat-tale plugs into a jack on the laptop and
> the wall cable plugs into the brick /and/ into the wall. AFAICT, the
> usual interpretation is asymmetric--you only plug X-object's "plug" into
> a jack or socket (AKA "receptacle").
>
 ...

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