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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!ncr-sd!crash!alen
- From: alen@crash.cts.com (Alen Shapiro)
- Subject: Re: Split Infinitive in System!
- Organization: CTS Network Services (crash, ctsnet), El Cajon, CA
- Date: 28 Dec 92 17:13:09 GMT
- Message-ID: <alen.725562789@crash.cts.com>
- References: <725437806.AA00941@contrast.wlink.nl> <Bzxx6s.DxC@demon.co.uk> <gurman.725549450@umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov>
- Lines: 38
-
- In <gurman.725549450@umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov> gurman@umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov (Joseph B. Gurman) writes:
-
- >David Johnston <davidj@daveland.demon.co.uk> writes:
-
- >>In article <725437806.AA00941@contrast.wlink.nl> Peter Kocourek,
- >>qsi@contrast.wlink.nl writes:
- >>>Playing with ResEdit and my System file, I managed to trash it; upon
- >>>re-installing the "Ask before emptying" dialog of the trash can was
- >>enabled
- >>>again, and to my horror I discovered that it contains a split infinitive
- >>>"...to permanently remove..."
- >>>
- >>>Am I just a sole lunatic in a wasteland of solecisms who notices this?
- >>>
- >>>(Sorry, I had to get this off my chest. :-))
-
- >>I'm afraid phobias about split infinitives are not allowed on the
- >>grounds that they were artificially imported from classical
- >>languages. If I could be bothered, I'd check with my mother who
- >>has a degree in these things but I can't so there.
-
- > Now all of this has no place in comp.sys.mac.system (perhaps
- >alt.english.grammar?), but in the spirit of the thing, I, for one, find
- >split infinitives as hard to take as ending a sentence with a
- >preposition, and that, as Churchill is reputed to have said, is
- >"something up with which I will not put." Or was it shall....
- > Happy New Year, grammar fans!
- > Joe Gurman
-
- Why do you think the old "You may now turn off your Macintosh safely"
- message bit the big one? The message was giving one permission to
- employ a safe mechanism to put the O.N./O.F.F. switch in the O.F.F.
- position. (The above capitalized letters should be annunciated separately
- for full effect).
-
- --alen ... Trying to turn a Sparc into a Flame
-
- alen@crash.cts.com
-