unnecessary editing[*]* Probably intentional.
Alan Zoppa points me to this Letter to the Editor, which he himself wrote, but to[**] which the editor added quotation marksto. Evidently,they do nothe[she? this editor?] does not believe that "co-religionists"[***] is a word. I plan to go to church with my co-religionists this Sunday.
Like so much else in the confusing, contentious Floyd Landis doping case, though, none of the answers are really that simple.it claims that:
"As with" is actually the proper way to begin the second sentence. "Like" implies an upcoming simile, which, let's face it, never occurred."Like" only necessarily implies an upcoming simile in the fevered brains of incorrect wannabe-pedants. As the OED states:
In mod. use (with following dat.) often = ‘such as’, introducing a particular example of a class respecting which something is predicated.And it gives the following example:
A birth like that of Keats presents to the ordinary mind a striking instance of nature's inscrutability.posted by Flunkie at 7:13 PM on September 29, 2007
languagehat: I thought that the singularity of none was reasonable and standard. Not everything's a rule, but some rationality makes a syntax a lot easier.There are people, like the wannabe-pedant author of the link, who claim that it must be singular. But most reasonable people understand that it can be either.
none of the answers are really that simpleHe lets loose with:
None means "no one" – a singular word. Therefore, NONE IS – not NONE ARE!The same "logic" can be used to support the exact opposite conclusion, by noting that "none" means "zero". When's the last time you heard "zero of the answers is blah blah blah"?
From the third link, about the jury, what bugs me the most is the notion that the verdict "said" anything. What? I may be just your average high-school graduate, but it occurs to me that the verdict may have "read" guilty, or the jury foreman, or the bailiff or the judge (whoever reads the verdict aloud) may have "said" guilty, but I don't believe that verdicts can speak.Oxford English Dictionary:
With an inanimate item as subject: to communicate or represent; esp. of a clock, calendar, etc., to show (a certain time or date); of a notice, to state (a certain message).Example:
On the door..Clarissa found a notice saying, ‘Welfare Officer. Knock and enter.’posted by Flunkie at 9:03 PM on September 29, 2007
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Illustrated.
My God. I think I just fell in love with a total fiction.
*adds "proof-marks bad graffiti" to The List*
*looks at List, winces at the length of it and the sudden realization of permanent singledom*
posted by loquacious at 5:23 PM on September 29, 2007 [5 favorites]