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> I keep grammar references around to settle arguments. This may
> come as a shock, but sometimes writers can be really nitpicky.
> He who has the most authoratative source, or, barring that, the
> heaviest book and the loudest voice, wins.
When I can't avoid discussions like that (and I loathe them like pickled beats
in chocolate sauce; they're a sign of the grammar neurosis I deplore), I draw
myself up to my full-but-low-side-of-medium-height and announce in a voice like
thunder (or at least of rusty drain pipes) that after seven years of teaching,
I know what I'm talking about.
Unfortunately, I haven't come anywhere near Thomas Hardy's authority; in his
last years, he used to turn to the OED for support in word usage, only to find,
as often as not, that the first cited example of a usage he was defending was
from one of his published works.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604-421.7177
