Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Secure Once Again!

It's Password Day! My email password is no longer f3arb1rdflu


Well done! Improved security and another stern warning about the imminent dangers of Bird Flu all in one.


I feel it's my obligation to keep awareness high for this deadly disease. I owe it to The Most Intelligent Readership In The World.


Most of which thought you were a little off your rocker yesterday for thinking "Your fries is hot" could be grammatically correct.


Very true. The returns were overwhelmingly negative for my new friend in the drive-thru window of a purely hypothetical restaurant chain we'll call "Ess-Cee's."


That one may be a little harder for the readers to figure out than "High's Home Improvements"


Either way...most people felt that since "Fries" was the subject of the sentence, and it was plural, that the proper conjugation of the verb "Be" would be "Are," thus creating the sentence "Your fries Are hot."

For the most part, I agree, and that is how I would have said it, but as Robert Wuhl says about Britney Spears, Judge Slowly.

I submit to you that "Fries" may not have been the subject of that sentence. The subject is a singular implied noun (Thus making "Is" the proper conjugation), and "Fries" is merely the object of an implied preposition. Many of us have gone to a drive-thru window and ordered "A burger, lemonade, and a large fries," and thought nothing of it. In this case, the words "Order of" describing the fries is implied, and the article "A" appropriate for the singular noun. Otherwise, you'd have to say "some large fries" at which point, the person taking the order is more confused than usual and runs out to the store to find abnormally large potatoes to cut up. The same can easily apply to the time when my fries are delivered. The guy in the window was merely pointing out that my order is hot, and was grammatically flawless.

So, to my buddy in the drive-thru window at "Ess-Cee's," I'd like to say that I'm with you. Keep living the dream!

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