h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So, if you've worked out this system for looking for things...write it down.

Then start from the bottom. Save you a load of time!

RF

A *man* suggesting to make a *list*? Now I've seen everything!

"It was the last place I looked."

"Well, of course it was."


The first speaker may have meant merely that he spent a long time looking for it, but more likely he meant that it was in the last place he had to look for it: that it was in the last coat pocket, on the last shelf, in the last drawer, or suchlike, so that had it not been there, he would have been flumoxed, having nowhere else in mind to search.

It's poor phrasing, though. He might have said, "It was in the last place I had to look," or, better, "I'd looked everywhere else first."

TRiG.

>> A *man* suggesting to make a *list*? Now I've seen everything! <<

Well, I'm quite an unusual man...at least, I *think* that's what they're saying

RF

I've only just found this thread, and I'd like to thank you all for it thus far.

So I will. Thank you all for it thus far.



DL

You're welcome, Daily Llama, and may I congratulate you for your lovely, unusual name.

How's this! M&S recall a line of clothing because of a grammatical error:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1888977,00.html

Wonderful.

I misread the final sentence. I thought it referred to 'a glaring grammatical giraffe'.

An article in the Grauniad correcting *someone else's* spelling? What is the world coming to?

RF

Beautiful that - "I do not care to dress my child in a top containing a glaring grammatical gaffe". Some kids do 'av 'em!

Has no one yet noticed the grammatical error in the final sentance of the article?

"Tesco selling packets of 'Individual Tropical Pavlova's' is a small thing in comparison."

TRiG.

I believe that was the point...

This afternoon I read the minutes of a management meeting. I'm disgusted that my superiors would allow someone so inept to represent their discourse.

Nah. The Gaurdian's error. There's a non-deliberate mistake in that sentence.

TRiG.

You're too kind, really *blush*

May I take this opportunity to pick TriG up on his spelling of "Gaurdian"?

Thanks ever so



DL

I would have said "Tesco's selling". Otherwise there's something missing, grammatically speaking. The "selling" is a noun and not a verb, so it belongs to Tesco.

(TRiG)

Look again, TRiG; it's Tesco's error. ["Pavlova's" should be 'Pavlovas' (it's plural, not possessive).

Yes, but that was the whole point of that - it had to be wrong or the sentence wouldn't have made sense. They were comparing the "Giraffe's" to the "Pavlova's"

Trig? Is that what you meant? Please back me up!!

Yes. Trillian's Child has got it. There should be a possessive before a verbal noun.

TRiG.

You could also pick me up on my spelling of /sentance/, if you wish.

TRiG.