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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
We don' need no steenkin' logic - In my view, logic is a bit like magic - even if you don't believe in it, it works.
And the magic of an expression like 'I could care less' is that it isn't logical and it also works. Whether you believe it or not.
(context and speaker are important)
To "context and speaker" I would add "hearer" - to my ears it does NOT work, at all. It makes me think of things which matter a great deal, things about which I could indeed care less. I could care less about breathing, eating, or whether my student passes her state registration exams for nursing. I could, but I won't.
Works for me, your addendum.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Every month or so I read in the newspaper that "the bullet ended up between the wall." And I immediately fire off an email to the reporter to ask him or her to complete thes sentence. Between the wall and WHAT, fer Chrissake?
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Works for me, your addendum.
Dear Peter ~
You don't have to address Max as "Your Addendum." He has renounced all titles and just goes by Max.
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 6
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 6 |
I agree with you, but unfortunately, most people who use "I could care less" are thinking "I couldn't..." Think about someone who just slammed you: "I couldn't care less about what you say" could be said coldly, calmly, or in anger.
In a different situation, using the ironical "I could care less" and intending it as irony, would only say it calmly - not in an angry demeanor - so as to give it the colder feeling intended = perhaps even sneer or smirk a little while saying it, thereby possibly angering the recipient - a manipulative play.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
There are five other black butterflies?
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Quote:
Works for me, your addendum.
Dear Peter ~
You don't have to address Max as "Your Addendum." He has renounced all titles and just goes by Max.
No Peter here; you talkin' to me?
Now, were you, in some alternate universe, to turn it, how would you punctuate the offending phrase? "Works for me your addendum," don't cut the mustard. Though, it does make my neglect apparently glaring. For, Your Honor, I did not capitalize "Your Addendum," as was not my wont. Still, Max likes titles. I know this from personal experience. And, since he is not one of US, and since you choose to think I've bestowed a title on him, I think we should let him have it, if have it he will.
edited without offense to the meaning of Max's replying post intended.
Last edited by inselpeter; 11/01/05 08:44 PM.
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
Quote:
Still, Max likes titles. I know this from personal experience.
My titular phase has passed, after prolonged discontent among THE hoi polloi. Try it out and see.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
I noticed that, but I thought it must be a grudg'ed crumb.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Honestly I think it is verbal laziness that makes people drop the n't from the expression.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
prolonged discontent among THE hoi polloi
You do these things just to provoke me, right?
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