Ardith Hinton:

>            Okay.  I could add a story about some things a friend
> gave us after his mother's death, but apparently you don't need
> it....  :-)

I should fear to hear it -- what if the inheritance turns out to
have another magickal item?

> AS>  It reminds me of a dialog line from a British horror story,
>
>            Note to Alexander:  dialog(ue) reflects the way the
> characters in a story would speak & can't necessarily be taken as
> a guide to proper usage.

Yes, and that woman is a British schoolteacher.

> AS>  where a woman excalims "I forgot he was vegeterinan!", when
> AS>  she realies she has prepared no vegetaranian meal for her new
> AS>  acquaintance, who, by all means, is vegetarian still.
>
>            If this woman thinks it's imperative that "forgot"
> agree with "was" she may be adhering to a "rule" which native
> speakers break routinely, because it doesn't make sense when e.g.
> somebody who claimed to be vegan or vegetarian awhile ago may
> have changed their mind.  Dallas & I often see the latter.  :-Q

Whithersoever I look, I see adherence, quite sticky adherence, nigh
sufficient to catch flies:

1. A man addresses a police consultant in Andrew Ian Dodge's "The
   Gathering Dark and other Tales":

   "No Sir. Please excuse me for doubting you; I forgot you were a
    police consultant." (the other *is* a police consultant)

2. Michael Sharp's "The True Story of the Sharpest Ever" has this
   line of dialogue "I forgot you were a doorman now."

3. Dialog from Charis Marsh's Ballet School Confidential:
   "Oh, I found about Isaac."
   "Oh, I forgot you were still reading Theresa's biography. What
    did happen to Isaac?"

4. From Traci E. Hall's The Queen's Guard:
   Eleanor coughed, and Louis turned to her with a wink: "Mon Cher,
   I forgot you were there." (she is still there).

5. From Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles Dickens:

   `I forgot,' cried the old man, looking at him with a keenness
    which the other seemed to feel, although he did not raise his
    eyes so as to see it. `I ask your pardon. I forgot you were a
    stranger. For the moment you reminded me of one Pecksniff, a
    cousin of mine...'

and so on. Where do they break the rule?

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