tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59577115164231892802024-02-18T20:46:24.125-08:00The Sentence SleuthDOWN WITH CRIMINAL SENTENCES!!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.comBlogger1018125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-54177478570628251062017-06-30T19:29:00.000-07:002017-06-30T19:29:07.865-07:00Guest-written Grammar Girl episode: Weird WordsWant to learn about some strange English words such as higgledy-piggledy? Check out <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-onomatopoeia-and-reduplication-make-weird-words">this recent episode</a> written by yours truly!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-12555892449989992912017-02-10T12:59:00.000-08:002017-02-10T12:59:20.671-08:00New Grammar Girl episode written by Moi!<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/international-animal-idioms">This episode</a> is about international phrases with animals!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-23462651341758283692017-02-02T17:07:00.000-08:002017-02-02T17:07:38.625-08:00New Grammar Girl Episode!Curious about the origins of the words we use for the twelve months of the year? Check out <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/names-of-the-months">my new episode</a> for Grammar Girl!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-58907723782698047332016-09-18T07:37:00.000-07:002016-09-18T07:37:26.327-07:00Criminal Sentence 678: Stickler Mourns Death of BodyAs a mother, I am always sad when I hear of a child dying. Likewise, as a grammarian, I am always aware of errors.<br />
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From today's newspaper (about the anniversry of a flood that swept away 12 people in Utah):<br />
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"The body of one boy, 6-year-old Tyson Black, was never found and is presumed dead."<br />
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After reflecting on the sadness of this sentence, we can turn to its grammar.<br />
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Let's take away some of the sentence so we can more clearly see the problem; we are left with "The body ... was never found and is presumed dead."<br />
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Here, the subject is "body." First, it was never found. Very sad. Very correct. Second, the body "is presumed dead." Sorry, but bodies used in this sense are always non-alive. To fix this, we just need to add one word: "he" and a comma before the "and."<br />
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"The body of one boy, 6-year-old Tyson Black, was never found, and he is presumed dead."<br />
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Very sad. Very correct.The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-8120497555682980782016-08-27T08:42:00.002-07:002016-08-27T08:42:53.779-07:00GG episode: English words with Latin origins<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/6-english-words-with-incognito-latin-origins">Here's the link</a> to my latest episode!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-38311424651194819092016-08-08T06:54:00.000-07:002016-08-08T06:54:20.628-07:00Criminal Sentence 677: The Thread PoliceThe Phoenix area is home to a serial shooter, who has killed seven people. I hope they catch him pronto! This criminal sentence comes from an article about this criminal:<br />
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"The thread police say links the nine incidents to one another is forensics."<br />
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When I first read this sentence I asked myself what the thread police are.<br />
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It turns out that this sentence needs a strategically placed "that":<br />
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"The thread that police say links the nine incidents to one another is forensics."<br />
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Even better would be to eliminate the "to be" verb and more wordiness:<br />
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"Police say that forensics links the nine incidents."<br />
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By the way, I wondered whether "forensics" is singular or plural. When the word refers to the discipline of forensics, it is singular.<br />
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<br />The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-67640681157873236952016-08-05T09:53:00.001-07:002016-08-05T09:53:25.576-07:00Criminal Sentence 676: Don't Be an "Ass"!Happy Friday! I was looking at descriptions of new movies and came across this gem on the IMDb app about the film "How to Be Yours":<br />
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"Two people driven by their professional ambitions fall in love and are forced to reassess their goals ass they encounter the trials of a serious relationship."<br />
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The movie got a 7.2 rating, but I'll give that sentence a 10 for its entertainment value!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-43857098920568739192016-07-15T07:52:00.001-07:002016-07-15T07:52:54.788-07:00New Grammar Girl episodeHere's a link to my latest guest-written episode, which my teenage son helped research:<br />
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<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/7-surprising-places-we-got-phrases-about-food">http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/7-surprising-places-we-got-phrases-about-food</a>The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-46369507849760086582016-06-28T06:39:00.000-07:002016-06-28T08:28:15.856-07:00Criminal Sentence 675: This "Will Significantly Effect" YouHello. I know it's been a while. The first sentence in an important newspaper story lured me from the kitchen table to the home office. (Yes, I am still in my pajamas.)<br />
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Here is the offender:<br />
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"Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a high-profile Texas abortion case will significantly effect how Arizona regulates abortion providers."<br />
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This article's lead grabbed my interest, but not in a good way. Politics aside, ugh! As this post's title suggests, there is a significant misspelling here: "effect" should be "affect." This error is pretty basic. If you Google "affect vs. efffect" you get 145 million hits, including <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/affect-versus-effect">a great explanation by my friend Grammar Girl</a>.<br />
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For the most part, "effect" acts as a noun, as in "The effect of that blue eyeshadow is frightening." Most of the time when you need to use a verb, as in the offending sentence, you should use "affect" with an "a": "Will bad spelling affect my reputation?"<br />
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Yes, it will!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-62242670359326059182015-12-13T12:20:00.002-08:002015-12-13T12:20:40.897-08:00Last new Grammar Girl guest-written episode this yearHappy Holidays, everyone.<br />
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<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/forensic-linguistics">Here </a>is my last GG episode of the year. Hope you enjoy!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-32397374455480798622015-12-04T11:12:00.003-08:002015-12-04T11:12:32.460-08:00Another new Grammar Girl episodeHere's <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/color-idioms">my latest</a>!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-43909230343108972312015-11-28T13:06:00.003-08:002015-11-28T13:06:30.437-08:00New Grammar Girl episode<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/what-is-the-meaning-of-blue-blood-and-other-blue-phrases">Here </a>is a fun episode about phrases that contain the word blue!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-47451536939642492352015-11-24T14:49:00.000-08:002015-11-24T14:49:13.228-08:00Criminal Sentence 674: Let's Visit Dairy Island!A chuckle-inducing sentence from an online blog:<br />
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"Don't stray from the dairy isle."<br />
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Don't worry. I won't jump on a boat and sail to that island. Instead, I'll go to the dairy <i>aisle</i>!<br />
<br />The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-52423137424770647392015-09-06T10:14:00.001-07:002015-09-06T10:14:40.587-07:00Criminal Sentence 673: How big of chunks?A quote from someone in yesterday's newspaper, in an article about workers trying to stabilize a giant rock that is poised to fall:<br />
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"We don't know how big of chunks are going to fall."<br />
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That's a big chunk of strangeness in my opinion. I understand what the person meant, but that does sound very odd, doesn't it?<br />
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He probably should have said something like this:<br />
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"We don't know the size of the chunks that are going to fall."<br />
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I realize that regular joes don't always speak grammatically. Perhaps I can let it slide in conversation, but nobody should write a sentence like that.<br />
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The construction "how [adjective] of..." works with singular nouns, as in "How crazy of a person are you?" But as we can see here, it doesn't work with plural nouns. I don't really know why. Any theories?The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-57207320964602538762015-09-06T10:07:00.004-07:002015-09-06T10:07:36.628-07:00New Grammar Girl episode: DiminutivesHere's my latest episode:<br />
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<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/diminutives">http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/diminutives</a><br />
<br />The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-66830694676452104892015-08-10T08:25:00.002-07:002015-08-10T08:25:42.497-07:00Criminal Sentence 672: Em Dash DoozyFrom today's newspaper:<br />
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"Apple is one of--if not the--largest holding by many individual investors, says SigFig."<br />
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In this sentence, the words between the em dashes (the --) are being emphasized, or at least they would be if the punctuation were correct. If you stick something in the middle of a sentence for emphasis, you need to be able to remove the em dashes and everything between them (the removal test), and the sentence needs to still make sense. Let's see what happens when we do this with our sentence:<br />
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"Apple is one of largest holding by many individual investors, says SigFig."<br />
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That's not right. In fact, it's downright criminal!<br />
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Let's fix it:<br />
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"Apple is one of the largest--if not the largest--holdings by many individual investors, says SigFig."<br />
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We had to repeat a word, but the new sentence is better. If we do the removal test, we end up with a coherent sentence:<br />
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"Apple is one of the largest holdings by many individual investors, says SigFig."<br />
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Of course, the sentence would probably sound better if we remove the passive "by" construction, but I'll hold off on complaining about that.The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-72069975782076067732015-08-07T08:20:00.003-07:002015-08-07T08:20:48.289-07:00New GG Episode! Prefixes and Suffixes<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/prefixes-and-suffixes">http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/prefixes-and-suffixes</a>The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-15790243558255350032015-07-20T09:57:00.000-07:002015-07-20T09:57:06.187-07:00New Grammar Girl episode!<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/last-name-origins">This is all about last names</a> (though I made a bonehead error, saying that last names are sometimes called Christian names). Despite that bozo moment, I think you'll find the episode informative.The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-13000297881977218222015-07-09T17:21:00.000-07:002015-07-09T17:21:10.265-07:00Criminal Sentence 671: The Curious Case of the Missing L<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhEXiTlDXHfpGPqWd5ZvexOtVSSbwKek8N_rbZS4gSQQkydsR-Ft-57VZ1F6TU2y2cGZQuCu0hGR7QEpZ33lIh3cYm1VgeDYX9QqWAvvwVOttVYscgEsfZxQdFS7ZsYH0SR3zHfrABdk/s1600/dumping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhEXiTlDXHfpGPqWd5ZvexOtVSSbwKek8N_rbZS4gSQQkydsR-Ft-57VZ1F6TU2y2cGZQuCu0hGR7QEpZ33lIh3cYm1VgeDYX9QqWAvvwVOttVYscgEsfZxQdFS7ZsYH0SR3zHfrABdk/s320/dumping.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
Last night, the kids and I enjoyed a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I am glad I ate the "pork dumping"--er, I mean pork dumpling--before I saw this typo!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-56497285116335544542015-06-24T07:18:00.001-07:002015-06-24T07:19:16.375-07:00Criminal Sentence 670: This Time, a Criminal EditorFrom today's newspaper, in a column explaining the jet stream:<br />
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"They are created by temperature contrasts which create pressure difference. Those contrasts create pressure differences and those pressure differences create winds."<br />
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Sounds a bit repetitive, huh? Well, it's clear that the writer's original sentence was the first one and then the copyeditor fixed it to be the second sentence (changing passive voice to active voice, and removing the "which"). However, the editor forgot to delete the original sentence. Oops!<br />
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As an editor, I edit original sentences like this one all the time. It's an editor's job to improve the text, not introduce errors, however. I try my best to reread what I've just edited, especially in a heavily edited piece.<br />
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This Criminal Sentence is a good reminder for me to do just that, and non-editors should reread their work, too!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-67200934300548285492015-06-04T15:05:00.004-07:002015-06-04T15:05:46.925-07:00New GG episode: Crossword Puzzles<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/crossword-puzzles">Here's</a> my latest exciting episode for Grammar Girl!The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-35716032324635674572015-05-22T08:00:00.000-07:002015-05-22T08:00:01.601-07:00New Grammar Girl guest-written episodeLearn about Japanese words in English and foreign words in Japanese!<br />
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<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/japanese-words-in-english">http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/japanese-words-in-english</a>The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-90100468185421584672015-03-02T20:50:00.001-08:002015-03-02T20:50:15.227-08:00Criminal Sentence 669: Hello. My name is Monday JoeFrom a book I'm reading:<div><br></div><div>"Monday Joe will make the judge see that." ("that" refers to "my [the narrator's] point of view.")</div><div><br></div><div>There's nothing technically wrong with this but it's ambiguous. The author means "On Monday" but writes just "Monday." The character's name is Joe, but it looks like Monday Joe. A comma might help:</div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Monday, Joe will make the judge see that."</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I think "On Monday," would be even better:</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"On Monday, Joe will make the judge see that."</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-84751026417535398732015-02-14T07:28:00.000-08:002015-02-14T07:29:01.752-08:00Criminal Sentence 668: Fifty Shades of Ungrammatical<div>
Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Ungrammatical Day!</div>
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From today's paper, in an article about how adult stores are going mainstream:<br />
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"Most people are not comfortable talking about how to improve their romance life with a complete stranger."</div>
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I had to chuckle at this: People are having romance with a complete stranger? Or are they talking with a complete stranger?</div>
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Some people have romance with a complete stranger, but on Valentine's you probably want romance with someone you know!</div>
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Let's fix it:</div>
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"Most people are not comfortable talking with a complete stranger about how to improve their romance life."</div>
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Now, go have some romance with someone, maybe even a stranger!</div>
The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5957711516423189280.post-10135097388310356552014-12-17T15:15:00.002-08:002014-12-17T15:15:24.501-08:00Criminal Sentence 667: Which State Do You Live In?<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;">From an online article:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;">"If Richard Linklater’s </span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;">Boyhood</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;"> doesn’t live up to the Oscar hype surrounding it, at least the writer and director of the unique coming-of-age tale can take comfort in knowing it was the President of the United State’s favorite film of the year."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;">Which state is that?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;">I think he meant "the President of the United States' favorite film."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 25.6000003814697px;">As an aside, it was a great film!</span></span>The Sentence Sleuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253486236870691918noreply@blogger.com1