Cato's Grammar Grumble

[JBS]

Maybe they want to confuse Qanon people who think pedometers will track or link to pedophiles.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I guess, on a positive note, they didn't have them in Patio Accessories ....

Steps from the kitchen to the grill outside and back and repeat? 

And no ill thoughts from me here as I love grilled and smoked food!  Just trying to be "cute". 

For what it's worth, I do have an app on my phone which can tell me how far it is that I've walked (though I do need to refresh myself on how it works).

PD

[DavidW]

Maybe they want to confuse Qanon people who think pedometers will track or link to pedophiles.

Oh I thought pedometers were meant for measuring how many children you have?  Really convenient before you leave Disneyland!

[Cato]

Oh I thought pedometers were meant for measuring how many children you have?  Really convenient before you leave Disneyland!

One of my great-uncles had about 10 kids: during the Depression in the early 1930's, he had packed everyone into a truck with an open bed and set out for a job in California.

Somewhere in the southwestern desert (Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas), he stopped for gas at a "Last Chance in a Hundred Miles for Gas" station, where everybody got out to eat and stretch and visit the restrooms.

You guessed it: about 50 miles down the road, one of the older kids yells: "We forgot Billy!"

Yes, Billy was still in the restroom when they were pulling out for the open road!   

[Wanderer]

Oh I thought pedometers were meant for measuring how many children you have?  Really convenient before you leave Disneyland!

😁

That would be a paedometer!

[Wanderer]

One of my great-uncles had about 10 kids: during the Depression in the early 1930's, he had packed everyone into a truck with an open bed and set out for a job in California.

Somewhere in the southwestern desert (Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas), he stopped for gas at a "Last Chance in a Hundred Miles for Gas" station, where everybody got out to eat and stretch and visit the restrooms.

You guessed it: about 50 miles down the road, one of the older kids yells: "We forgot Billy!"

Yes, Billy was still in the restroom when they were pulling out for the open road! 

Billy: Oh no, not again!

[Florestan]

one of those thingys that count steps

Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, non aliena meo pressi pede.

[Cato]

Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, non aliena meo pressi pede.

Optime!

I am impressed that you recalled this line of Horace!  The letter begins about poetry written by "drinkers of water."

Horace seems not to be a fan, or simply indicates that wine traditionally gets the Muses going!   

[Florestan]

Optime!

I am impressed that you recalled this line of Horace!

I was reminded of it very recently while reading the first letter of Carpani's Le Haydine.

The letter begins about poetry written by "drinkers of water."

Nulla placere diu nec vivere carmina possunt quae scribuntur aquae potoribus.

I have known this since childhood, it was my father's favorite Latin quotation. 

Horace seems not to be a fan, or simply indicates that wine traditionally gets the Muses going! 

CF. Baudelaire, some 1,700 years later: If wine were to disappear from human production, I believe it would cause an absence, a failure in health and intellect, a void much more terrifying than all the recesses and the deviations for which wine is regarded as responsible. 

[Karl Henning]

Not a grumble, a straight-up question: what is the "mood" (it would be a mood, rather than tense, right?) of the verb in God save the King...?

[Cato]

Not a grumble, a straight-up question: what is the "mood" (it would be a mood, rather than tense, right?) of the verb in God save the King...?

It would be considered Imperative Mood, which means a command, and it might seem odd to give God a command, but it is meant to show urgency.  Prayers contain many such polite commands: Ora pro nobis (Pray for us) is in the Imperative Mood.

[Karl Henning]

It would be considered Imperative Mood, which means a command, and it might seem odd to give God a command, but it is meant to show urgency.  Prayers contain many such polite commands: Ora pro nobis (Pray for us) is in the Imperative Mood.

That's what I was thinking. (Pats himself on the back.)

[Cato]

That's what I was thinking. (Pats himself on the back.)

Well sure!  You were right!

Soooooo many items in recent weeks, but very little time to address them.

One grumble is a "golden oldie," as the radio announcers would say, viz. "between" vs. "among."

I have been reading a history of the days of Attila the Hun, and the author, a reputable historian, cannot bring himself to use "among," when 3 or more things or persons are involved.

e.g. "The army was divided between these three generals..." 

I just find that so clunky and grating!

Speaking of grammatical moods, the continual misuse of "would/would have" in Subjunctive Mood, Contrary-to-Fact Conditions was on display via local television in a report about an accident, where a driver, on a clear sunny day, drove directly into the end of a guardrail, which split his vehicle in half, right down the middle, missing the driver and his front-seat passenger.

But there was another error in the sentence, an error heard too often these days!

Reporter: "We don't know why the car went off to the left. 

If the driver would've drove to the right, he would've missed the guardrail."

NO!    "If the driver had driven..."

My work is never did, I mean done!   

[Florestan]

Had the driver driven... 

[Karl Henning]

Had the driver driven... 

That, too.

[Karl Henning]

I know that finding malapropisms in products shipped from the non-English-speaking world is next door to shooting fish in a barrel, but the two distinct misspellings of magnificence really tickled me.

[Florestan]

I know that finding malapropisms in products shipped from the non-English-speaking world is next door to shooting fish in a barrel, but the two distinct misspellings of magnificence really tickled me.

Magnicent find, Karl.

[Cato]

So...

Mrs. Cato was typing the following sentence for one of her volunteer projects:

"Sean has been alert and active during my visits."  (Sean is a baby.)

Microsoft underlined "alert" as being an error.   

"What's wrong with that?" she asked me.

"Nothing.  Possibly the machine is interpreting 'alert' as a verb, maybe?"

So, after clicking on the Grammar Icon, the answer was:

"Sean has been alert, and active."

No!  Absolutely not!  No comma is necessary!

This is not the first time such errors have occurred with "Grammar Check" or "Spell Check."

We see the problem with Artificial Intelligence: what if Artificial Intelligence is in reality...just dumb?  😇

I am reminded of G.I.G.O., an abbreviation from the early days of computers.  It is a comment on programming.

"Garbage In, Garbage Out."    

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I know that finding malapropisms in products shipped from the non-English-speaking world is next door to shooting fish in a barrel, but the two distinct misspellings of magnificence really tickled me.

A bootleg copy?

PD

[Karl Henning]

A bootleg copy?

PD

Well, I got it from Amazon. Do they traffic in bootlegs, do we suppose?