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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
The following letter to the editor appeared in this morning's Telegraph:
----------------------------------------------------
SIR -- as a schoolboy, when learning of the importance of precise
punctuation, I was shown the following two statements:
"Woman without her man is useless."
"Woman! Without her, man is useless!"
As a happily married man, my wife assures me that the second statement
has the ring of truth.
Thomas Wingate,
London W2
------------------------------------------------------
The second curiousity about this letter is that the fellow's wife is, apparently, a happily married man.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,101 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,101 Likes: 2 |
The Importance of Avoiding Dangling Participles
res ipse loquitur
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Father Steve, you make me smile! Gracias.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Quote:
… the fellow's wife is, apparently, a happily married man.
It always amazes me how you prescrips will go to such lengths to willfully misunderstand a perfectly comprehensible sentence.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Quote:
Quote:
… the fellow's wife is, apparently, a happily married man.
It always amazes me how you prescrips will go to such lengths to willfully misunderstand a perfectly comprehensible sentence.
Comprehensible, schmomprehensible. I had to read it twice. 
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Aktully, I didn't get the 'ambiguity;' I thought Father Steve was throwing in an extra bit of information at the end. But then I'm from New York.
Last edited by inselpeter; 03/09/2006 3:04 PM.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ditto, 'cept I'm from Kentucky.
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