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#147877 09/13/05 11:50 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Today, while coming back to the courthouse from lunch, I spied a car parked in the courthouse lot with a bumper sticker which read "The truly educated never graduate." Once I recovered from the pretension of its placement, I responded to it by leaving a small note, tucked under the windshield wiper on the driver's side. The note read "The truly educated know the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs." That was bad, wasn't it.


#147878 09/14/05 12:14 AM
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what kind of car was it?



formerly known as etaoin...
#147879 09/14/05 12:48 AM
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Well, graduate is both a transitive and an intransitive verb:


1. intransitive verb finish school or college: to receive a diploma or degree after completing a course of study in a school, college, or university
We both graduated from high school in 1996.


2. transitive verb give a certificate: to give a diploma or degree to a student completing a course of study


3. intransitive verb move up: to move upward from one level or activity to another
I've graduated from skiing to snowboarding.


4. transitive verb mark something with degrees or levels: to mark something with units of measurement


5. transitive verb sort things by differences: to sort things into groups according to quality, size, or type


I'm having trouble seeing what it was to which you objected, Fr. Steve.






TEd
#147880 09/14/05 01:25 AM
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to which Hey, don't pull Jo into this--she hasn't even been here for a while!

Whoa, Father Steve, whoa--you're wandering near the edge...and I'm right there along with you. Pull us back, somebody!


#147881 09/14/05 02:01 AM
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I
Pooh-Bah
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>>Pull us back<<

Well, it *is a bumper sticker.


#147882 09/14/05 03:55 AM
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Awwright, that does it: you and eta both come here a minute--I have something for each of you.


#147883 09/14/05 04:34 AM
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what kind of car was it?

I'm no expert, but it looked like (about) a 1964 Volvo station wagon ... which must be what really well-educated people drive.


#147884 09/14/05 04:36 AM
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#147885 09/14/05 04:41 AM
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Isn't arrogant superciliousness of the sort demonstrated by your retort kind of frowned in your vocation, Your Honour? If even a rabid prescriptivist like TEd concedes that "graduate" is both transitive and intransitive, you seem to be rather bereft of legs upon which to stand. Of course, watching prescriptivists make fools of themselves is part of the fun for me, so by all means keep it up.


#147886 09/14/05 04:48 AM
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Beloved Max ~

Arrogance, superciliousness, rabidity, leglessness, and foolishness are among my BETTER qualities. You don't want to meet the really awful stuff. I also strive to entertain -- it is doubtless a defect of character rooted in some childhood neurosis -- and am pleased to have succeeded in your case.

Father Steve


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