Posted on 09/28/2011 1:00:49 PM PDT by iowamark
Bwahahaha!
I don’t think you understood me.
I’m very familiar with begging the question or petitio principii. However, as I said, I can’t think of a single instance of begging the question that doesn’t also raise the question.
If I say Robert is an idiot because he’s stupid, that’s a classical example of begging the question. It also immediately raises the question as to why I would say that as I’ve offered no syllogistic reason to be believed. I’ve tried after reading your original response, and I’m hard put to formulate an expression that begs the question, yet does not raise a question. I’m suspecting that it’s not possible.
Lesbian divorce court?
That’s wonderful!
Shouldn’t the comma come after the subject instead?
My favorites are “This is hugh” and “ very series”.
I rfeckon it matters if you’re referrin’ to humblegunner or butthole. Self addresses seem less formal ... I don’t often speak to my body parts though. The parentage of someone, now that’s a different story: ‘God morning, barry bassturd, you sonofabitch’ needs a comma to differentiate don’tchaknow.
Actually, when you get down to it, country music offers some of the most interesting riffs and variations on the English language. It’s always been that way, considering the British folk roots of American country. It’s certainly superior, in my opinion, to the kitschy pretentiousness of Broadway style of lyric writing like, off the top of my head, “You don’t bring me flowers” or “You are the wind under my wings”. Say what?
When presented with some small inconsequential favor from a colleague at my last job, I would flap my wings to him and intone out of tune, “You are the wind under my wings”. OH, those were the days!
What they really should be saying is "I couldn't care less."
What about when you COULD care less?...
Weary and alone,
Savaged by the winds of time,
Burdoned with this state of mind,
Searching through a storm of stones, I am alone.
The melody takes you to the place the lyrics describe. If you write, you know what I mean, but if you don't write, you might not get how personal these lyrics can be. Hell, I raise cattle and hay (before the drought). I guess a cowboy can rhyme as good (or well) as a rapper.
Well, then we disagree. “Wind Beneath my Wings” is the epitome of pretentiousness to me, like, say, “Feelings”, or, better yet, “I (Who Have Nothing)” and “My Way”. Just the word “Wings” referring to oneself provokes the thoughts of insincerity, false loftiness, Thomas Kinkade, and so on (I’d better stop.)
But listen to Hal David’s lyrics to Bacharach’s tunes, or even Mick Jagger’s on his solo albums, who in my opinion is one of unappreciated lyricists. There are many others, and they are not on Broadway producing assembly line throw away word plays and cliched sentimental claptrap.
The kids in the cubicles of the Brill Building in the 60s wrote fresher lyrics than the Broadway hacks did then or now. Don’t Stephen Sondheim me!
Do wacka do, wacka do, so dang me!
Found this at Merriam-Webster
Definition of NAUSEOUS
1
: causing nausea or disgust : nauseating
2
: affected with nausea or disgust
— nau·seous·ly adverb
— nau·seous·ness noun
See nauseous defined for English-language learners »
See nauseous defined for kids »
Usage Discussion of NAUSEOUS
Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 and that in sense 2 it is an error for nauseated are mistaken. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea, usually after a linking verb such as feel or become; figurative use is quite a bit less frequent. Use of nauseous in sense 1 is much more often figurative than literal, and this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. Nauseated is used more widely than nauseous in sense 2.
As best as I can figure, a prune that never had a pit is pitted, and a prune that once had a pit that got taken out is unpitted.
Or, maybe its the same thing.
All plums start out with pits (seeds). (The fruit wouldn't develop unless the seed did.)
Pitted prunes are prunes that have had their pits removed.
I don't find "unpitted" in any of the online dictionaries. But it seems to be used to mean "not pitted" -- i.e., the pits have not been removed.
Surely “Wind Beneath My Wings” isn’t the sole alternative to “She Thinks My Tractor Is Sexy”. But hey, Trent Reznor is my favorite artist, and I can’t even quote half of his lyrics here so who am I to judge?
Yes, the apostrophe is allowed in that situation. I use this conversation as an example: "What did you get on your report card?" "A's and B's." But if the letters were B and C, you could omit the apostrophes!
A consideration re. your Oakland A's example is that the team does use the apostrophe. So the apostrophe is not only correctly used for written clarity, but it also conforms to the accepted usage for that particular proper noun.
The other situation where an apostrophe is correctly used to make a plural is when you're referring to plural numbers of particular words. "He used six and's, four but's, and two so's in that nightmarishly long sentence." The apostrophes are needed because he used the word "and" six times, not the word "ands."
If you look at different grammar and publishing texts, you'll see that different sources disagree on many points of usage. And usage changes over time. I'm old enough to remember when apostrophes were used to make plurals of acronyms: PC's, for example. Now we're supposed to write PCs.
In the really olden days when libraries had card catalogs, there were elaborate rules as to how acronyms were alphabetized and filed. That is now so far in the past that I can only remember that acronyms were separated into two categories: those which were pronounced as words (UNICEF, NASA, NATO, AIDS), and those which were pronounced as letters (USA, GPS, HTML, NAACP) -- and the two categories were filed differently.
The mailboxes were red, green, and brown -- OR -- The mailboxes were red, green and brown. (We have no clue how many there were ... or whether any of the mailboxes had more than one color. But we do know that only those three colors were used!)
Oh, there are many other possibilities for misspelling voilà! I've seen wallah, wahlah, wa la, waalaa, whala, whalaa, and whoala, as well as the ever-popular musical instrument. Yes, I started keeping a list three or four years ago.
The most recent find is voile. Mental picture of someone pulling a screening piece of fabric away to show the hidden object.
Border's going-out-of-business sale last month. And I had a coupon.
I used to have to use the CMOS occasionally at work. In retirement, I missed not having it around to consult.
This is the 2010 edition. I'd used the preceding three editions; haven't looked at this one much, so I don't know what they changed or added (probably much more on footnoting online sources).
Look at the many people on LinkedIn who are "principle" this or that. If you have "principal" in your job title, meaning you are up there, presumably a leader in your profession, should you not be expected to know the difference between principle and principal?
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