Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  I've heard that the "William Shakespeare" who lived in
AH>  Stratford was an illiterate businessman.  That's why
AH>  there are so many theories about who really wrote the
AH>  stuff, I guess....  :-))

JB>  I suppose he could have dictated the manuscripts, but
JB>  that would still make the scripts in someone else's
JB>  hand. The last theory I heard was the broker business,
JB>  and all the laureates were in a cafuffle over it.


          Hmm... they may find it difficult to imagine how an illiterate
person could be a broker of manuscripts, but I've met plenty of salespeople
who seemed quite ignorant about what they were dealing in!  A lot of the
more entertaining theories have to do with some individual who preferred
not to have his identity made public for one reason or another.  I think
it's quite possible that such a person might employ a broker to distribute
his work, and a broker might be able to find a market for stuff he hadn't
read himself.  He might even have supplied material to certain theatres in
exchange for a share of their receipts....  :-)



AH>  Other people don't have to assist teenagers with such
AH>  "routines of daily living" either... (wry grin).

JB>  That's your story, and you are sticking to it? <-;


          Okay, the *vast majority* of other people don't!  I know people
whose Aged Parents require help at bedtime... as did my father when he'd
had a stroke similar to Nora's.  But from what I've heard, parents of
teenagers generally go to bed whenever they feel like it & let the kids
put themselves to bed....  :-)



JB>  I always answer others posts first, as usually they are
JB>  a lot less involved, and take much less contemplation.
JB>  You, are a taxing corespondent. <-|


          Thankyou for sticking with it!  From my point of view, you write
in a rather enigmatic & metaphorical style at times... as if you were
writing lyrics for a song... and it takes me awhile to figure out what you
mean.  OTOH, I make people think.  But we seem to get onto the same wave
length eventually....  ;-)



AH>  I smell a joke coming on which might fit into a tagline
AH>  too.  "Old schoolteachers never die, they just lose their
AH>  class"... [chuckle].

JB>  How about, "Teachers without class..." Hmmm... That seems
JB>  like a dead end.


          Yes... I used the pattern of jokes like "Old blondes never
fade, they just dye away" as a signal that the statement is a pun. 
The word "class" could be interpreted as social status (cf. the
disapproving "not our class, Dear") or as a group of students. 
The ambiguity is part of what makes it funny....  :-))



AH>  I see you've got the drift....  :-)

JB>  Now I'm trying to remember the lesson after my summer
JB>  holiday.


          We were talking about possessive nouns.  If the noun is plural it
may have an "s" at the end already, in which case we don't add
another "s".  If the noun is singular but has an "s" at
the end, e.g. "James", we may or may not add another
"s".  Either way I wouldn't lop the "s" off the end of
your name & tack it on somewhere else... but I've seen that done with
nouns like "persons".  :-)



JB>  Hmmm... Something else I'm not recalling. Who was the
JB>  brunt of the moron joke?


          Nora is mentally handicapped.  It's not a problem in this echo...
but I've run across it in public playgrounds & in certain other echoes.



JB>  I'll go check right after I catch up to the raspberries. 


          Yes, first things first!  I love fresh raspberries....  :-))




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+