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What an interesting online reference, Glenn (Bartleby). When I saved it to add to my list of online language resources, I had to think about what to name it! In the end I called it Bartleby Language and Lit.
We've been picking on, and defending, that poor sentence for quite some time now. The “there are†versus “there is†question could be avoided altogether thus: "There are some patients whom we cannot cure, none we cannot help or comfort, and none we cannot harm." But I suspect that the creator of that sentence crafted it to sound just like it does, the same way Lincoln crafted "Four score and seven years ago . . ."
We could update the darn sentence: "There are some patients whom we cannot cure, but there are none we cannot bill, cannot bankrupt, and none we cannot turn away for lack of insurance."
I love the site bartleby.com. And “Bartleby the Scrivener†(Melville) is one of my favorite short stories. It has haunted me from the time I first read it as a child. I presume that is the reference for the website's name, but I may just be fixating.
And I just realized that my post above was my 100th post. Time to celebrate with chocolate.
Yes, congrats on 100 - not just for quantity of posts but quality as well! Grant and Martha will be sending you a pair of autographed boxers with the WWW logo on them - an apropos gift as they always do their show by the seat of their pants.
I will find and read the story Bartleby the Scrivener (perhaps it is available online in the public domain). You didn't say what it is about, which is fine because I like nice surprises.
A Twitter follower tweeted this link to a video of Cosby using "zerbert" on The Cosby Show, but I am pretty sure I remember him using the word in his standup comedy routines, which predate the television show by some years.
The plural of hiatus can also be hiatus because it's a Latin noun of the fourth declension (nouns with genitive in us and singular = plural). Another example is apparatus (pl. apparatuses or apparatus), not apparati, since not all Latin words ending in us have i in the plural, only second declension nouns (those with genitive in i).
Just catching up with the recession advertising discussion here with samaphore. You know, it's funny: A day or two ago I ran across an article saying just the opposite, that advertisers are using somewhat gloomier language to try to sell things. Of course, now I can't put my hands on it. Then again, I did come across this one from 1991. Plus ca change . . .
I remember first hearing "agita" in the 1991 Sylvester Stallone comedy "Oscar":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg0abmq2DLw
Harry Shearer as Italian tailor Guido Finucci says it at about 3:35 in the above clip.
I remember looking it up and it always stuck with me as one of my favorite words to use to confuse my friends.
BTW, I think this is one Stallone's best movies, although it is often underrated.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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