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Usenet Posted 23 years ago
Usage
Quote from HL Menken 1921
What is wrong with this??
The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain signs of it in print. More than once, plowing through profound and interminable treatises of grammar and syntax during the writing and revision of the present work, I have encountered the cheering spectacle of one grammarian exposing, with contagious joy, the grammatical lapses of some other grammarian. And nine times out of ten, a few pages further on, I have found the enchanted purist erring himself. 1 The most funereal of the sciences is saved from utter horror by such displays of human malice and fallibility. Speech itself, indeed, would become almost impossible if the grammarians could follow their own rules unfailingly, and were always right.
The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain signs of it in print. More than once, plowing through profound and interminable treatises of grammar and syntax during the writing and revision of the present work, I have encountered the cheering spectacle of one grammarian exposing, with contagious joy, the grammatical lapses of some other grammarian. And nine times out of ten, a few pages further on, I have found the enchanted purist erring himself. 1 The most funereal of the sciences is saved from utter horror by such displays of human malice and fallibility. Speech itself, indeed, would become almost impossible if the grammarians could follow their own rules unfailingly, and were always right.
Top answer
[/nq] One question mark too many. [nq:1]The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain signs of it in print. [/nq] Umberto Eco?
- [/nq] One question mark too many.
- [nq:1]The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain signs of it in print.
- [/nq] Umberto Eco?
- It's dense but that doesn't make it wrong.
- "erring himself" is difficult to follow - I had to read it three times to understand what it meant, although that also does not make it wrong.
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6 Answers
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[nq:1]What is wrong with this??[/nq]
One question mark too many.
[nq:1]The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain signs of it in print. ... Speech itself, indeed, would become almost impossible if the grammarians could follow their own rules unfailingly, and were always right.[/nq]
Umberto Eco?
It's dense but that doesn't make it wr
One question mark too many.
[nq:1]The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain signs of it in print. ... Speech itself, indeed, would become almost impossible if the grammarians could follow their own rules unfailingly, and were always right.[/nq]
Umberto Eco?
It's dense but that doesn't make it wr
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I've said before and I'll say it again - nobody reads subject lines.
David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
==
The address is valid today, but I change it periodically.
David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
==
The address is valid today, but I change it periodically.
00
X-No-Archive: yes
[nq:1]What is wrong with this?? ... And nine times out of ten ... is a cliche. Sorry I don't have timeto go into more detail but I have a thing about cliches.[/nq]
James Follett. Novelist (Callsign G1LXP)
http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk and
[nq:1]What is wrong with this?? ... And nine times out of ten ... is a cliche. Sorry I don't have timeto go into more detail but I have a thing about cliches.[/nq]
James Follett. Novelist (Callsign G1LXP)
http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk and
00
[nq:1]What is wrong with this?? The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain ... Speech itself, indeed, would become almost impossible if the grammarians could follow their own rules unfailingly, and were always right.[/nq]
Skitt's law.
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Skitt's law.
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
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Tim filted:
[nq:1]What is wrong with this?? The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain ... Speech itself, indeed, would become almost impossible if the grammarians could follow their own rules unfailingly, and were always right.[/nq]
Only one thing is wrong with it: that it is not chiseled in letters eight feet high in every available publi
[nq:1]What is wrong with this?? The professors themselves, in truth, must have the same habit, for sometimes they show plain ... Speech itself, indeed, would become almost impossible if the grammarians could follow their own rules unfailingly, and were always right.[/nq]
Only one thing is wrong with it: that it is not chiseled in letters eight feet high in every available publi
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[nq:2]What is wrong with this?? ... And nine times out of ten ... is a cliche. Sorry I don't have time[/nq]
[nq:1]to go into more detail but I have a thing about cliches.[/nq]
Sure, it's a cliche now. Shakespeare's writing is full of such "cliches."
\\P. Schultz
[nq:1]to go into more detail but I have a thing about cliches.[/nq]
Sure, it's a cliche now. Shakespeare's writing is full of such "cliches."
\\P. Schultz
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