On or about 02-01-06 14:52, Ardith Hinton did engage James Bradley

 AH> Hi again, James!  Here's another installment in the current series:

Like sands through the hourglass... 

 JB>  How was the apostrophe there?


 AH>           It would be fine if the word "other" was plural,
 AH> but in "each other" and "one another" the pronoun is
 AH> singular.  Variants... each to the other, one to another.
 AH> The focus is on one-to-one interaction either way.

Ya, see? The eyes fog over, and the sleep draws near...

The only time I pretend to give a squat is when an English teacher walks into
the room. 


 JB>  This, with the dictionary in the other room.


 AH>           Ah.  It seems to me you've been having difficulty with the
 AH> idea of a perception/judgement continuum, but you've just provided
 AH> some raw material!  I tend to issue firm pronouncements

Oh hell! 

Seriously, I need to break out a fire extiguisher, so we'll chat more later. 

I suspect one of two things will happen by that time: 1) I'll buy a real
dictionary, so I don't have to share this one between 'puters. 2) I'll continue
to not give a crap. 


 AH> about spelling & traditional grammar because in most cases you are
 AH> enquiring about what I know or can look up somewhere.  I was blessed
 AH> with a knack for such things, and I taught them for umpteen
 AH> years. I'm using judgement when I say the spelling above is
 AH> "right" or "wrong".  With regard to comments such as the
 AH> one above, however, I'd be more inclined to say something
 AH> like "Maybe you could keep the dictionary closer to your
 AH> computer??" I'm not telling you what you "should" do,
 AH> although a "J" person might do that. I've never been in
 AH> your house.  I'd like to keep my own dictionaries closer at
 AH> hand but don't have the space... so who am I to decide
 AH> where you "should" keep your reference books?  I may offer
 AH> ideas, but I let you decide which ones will work for you &
 AH> which ones won't.  I'd accept a range of answers there.
 AH> People who apparently have a strong "J" component in their
 AH> reasoning style often tell me I'm "wishy-washy" or "woolly-
 AH> minded", however, if I do such things.

 AH>           Another example is the article saying it's
 AH> "cowardly" to shoot a man from behind.  If pressed for an
 AH> adjective, I'd have to say I think it would be foolhardy
 AH> for someone acting alone to stand in the road & take aim in
 AH> front of
 AH> a bunch of soldiers.  I imagine this person figured s/he could
 AH> accomplish more as a live coward than as a dead hero... cf. your
 AH> comments about canoeing!  I'm not saying I *approve* of what s/he did,
 AH> just that I find it *understandable*. But IMHO you are a
"P" person, so
 AH> I don't need to explain that to you....  :-)

 AH>           Sometimes people change their delivery to avoid offending
 AH> others, or to be _au courant_, without changing their thinking
 AH> patterns.  That's probably why "political correctness"
 AH> seems so ineffectual.  When a friend showed Nora & me the
 AH> "correct" way to get into bed, I could see she was really
 AH> trying not to use the word "should".  I do appreciate that.
 AH>  What she'd overlooked, however, was that the advice she'd
 AH> been given doesn't take hemiplegia into account!  My
 AH> initial reaction, which I kept to myself, was "Well... I
 AH> guess we'll just have to continue doing it incorrectly.
 AH> Nora's way seems to work for Nora, anyhow."

 AH>           At one extreme are those who have firm ideas about what other
 AH> people should do, based on what works for them.  And at the
 AH> other are those like Evel Knievel... who eventually
 AH> realized in middle age that his daredevil stunts had taken
 AH> their toll.  I think you & I are probably somewhere in
 AH> between....   :-)




 AH> --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+

... James
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