Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we all recover from the quizzes and prepare for Thanksgiving break I thought we could share a smile over this error from a political email I received:

While Thanksgiving Day offers choices such as what kind of stuffing you prefer and just how much mashed potatoes is too much, flying to your destination may require deciding whether to be ogled or felt up.

"Potatoes" are a countable quantity so the passage should read-

While Thanksgiving Day offers choices such as what kind of stuffing you prefer and just how many mashed potatoes are too many, flying to your destination may require deciding whether to be ogled or felt up.


I suppose that once the potatoes are mashed they become uncountable though, so it becomes a debate over whether "mashed" is an adjective of "potatoes" or if "mashed potatoes" are their own entity.

(:

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