Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for October 05, 2016

As Winston Churchill once said, “This is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put.”

Where’s the blackboard?

Where is it at?

Yes, Jedi you are.

It’s a rule we should be aware about.

I’d rather she wasn’t prepositioning people right out there in the street.

I say if your going too brake the grammer rules do it all over.

heh.

I didn’t know that a crack in the sidewalk is the line to be towed

Agnes is asking to be kicked in the behind.

“At one time, schoolchildren were taught that a sentence should never end with a preposition. However, this is a philosophy actually associated with Latin grammar. While many aspects of Latin have made their way into the English language, this particular grammar rule is not suited for modern English usage.”

I drove a taxi for eight years. Every dispatcher we ever had would always ask drivers, “Where’re you at?” Drove me nutz.

Agnes, my dear lady, you have my vote. Wasn’t sure “toe the line” should have been “tow the line” till I did a quick search on its original meaning. Well done.

Now that’s a social justice warrior I can believe in.

toes?

The so-called rule is pure baloney (putting it politely). It was invented by John Dryden because he thought English was a vulgar language that should be more like Latin. English teachers love rules so they adopted it. Clarity of writing doesn’t concern them nearly as much as stupid rules.

Next thing you know they will want us to speak in full sentences.

Old joke about the Georgia boy that went to Harvard. The punchline goes “So where’s the library at, asshole?”

That is something up with which I will not put.

Reminds me of the bedtime story.Little girl goes up to bed, tells Dad to come up and read to her. Dad, at usual, brings the wrong book.Girl says, Dad, why did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of up for?

The rule about ending a sentence with a preposition is not only Latin grammar misapplied to English (which uses a simplified Germanic grammar with a vocabulary borrowed from many languages), but it would be mis-stated even if true – it suggests that adding an interjection after the preposition fixes the (imaginary) problem. E.g., “Where are you at, mush head?”

Well, ok then

I’d rather have this than people who don’t know how to use the following words: they’re, there, their, your and, you’re. The sound you hear is that of Beaker’s head exploding (Think The Muppet Show and Dr. Bunsen Burner.)

A preposition is a wonderful thing to end a sentence with.

Agnes seems to be against using verbs also: (will be) strictly enforced.

Dad goes upstairs to read his kid a bedtime story, but he brings the wrong book, so the kid says, “What did you bring the book I didn’t want to be read to out of up for?”

Like the cane/walking stick. Funny, but young kids finally make room for me to walk now. Not sure if they are being polite, or if they are unsure if I’ll bop them with said cane. Rather think it’s the second.

It would be tows the line unless she was stepping on it with her toes.

I always thought that “toe the line” could be taken to mean “to challenge”. One uses a toe to “draw a line in the sand” and dare someone to cross it.

That doesn’t bother me half as much as dangling participial phrases.

DutchUncle

He did, to a BBC producer objecting to his “that is the sort of thing the Ministry is working on”. Quoting a previous source is possible.

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Bedtime: "Why did you bring that book to read out of up for?

How about fining anyone who uses these phrases:“like” “you know what I mean?” My skin crawls whenever I hear these phrases. Especially “like”. I actually told someone to stop talking because I had no idea what they were saying since every 2-3 words, “like” was used!

What for?