[RipSawyer]

Perhaps someone can recall who said a quote I am about to paraphrase: "I would not want to be judged by twelve people too stupid to not get off jury duty."

This probably constitutes extreme nitpicking but I am irritated when supposedly literate people use this type of sentence construction. The second not in this sentence actually changes the meaning to the exact opposite of what the speaker really means. The functional equivalent is when no negatives are used as in the constantly heard, "I could care less", which is used to mean I could NOT care less. Flame away if you will but the inability to communicate creates all kinds of problems and this type of misusage, which i was cautioned against in grade school, is heard daily on television news programs.

[Cboldt]

Flame away if you will ...

No flames. I share your distaste with "I could care less," but the "I would not want to be judged by twelve people too stupid to not get off jury duty." is, I think correct.

The jurors in place are so stupid, they could not even come up with an excuse to get out of jury duty. "Too stupid to not get off ... " is awkward, but I think it correctly expresses the sentiment.

[Cboldt]

Flame away if you will ...

No flames. I share your distaste with "I could care less," but the "I would not want to be judged by twelve people too stupid to not get off jury duty." is, I think correct.

The jurors in place are so stupid, they could not even come up with an excuse to get out of jury duty. "Too stupid to not get off ... " is awkward, but I think it correctly expresses the sentiment.

I am re-reading, and rethinking ... I see that it (too stupid to not get off) could be interpreted either way. It's worse than awkward!

[dmzTahoe]

"Flame away if you will but the inability to communicate creates all kinds of problems and this type of misusage, which i was cautioned against in grade school, is heard daily on television news programs."

Sorry, grammar police. I said it was a paraphrase of a quote, and it was either Yogi Berra or Norm Crosby, one of the true linguists, who authored it. In either case, it was meant to be one of those quotes that gets you thinking, a head shaker, but in the end it is accurate.

By the way, Webster, make sure you capitalize all your i's (sic). You were probably sick for that lesson in grade school.