You've got questions? (was Piano Designers...)

[harvey]

JimB, sorry to upset you. Nossaman will 'toy' with a given theme; so will I.
He quotes Star Trek, I like diesels. Since we both went to different schools
together, neither of us follow the game plan. If fact, both of us (bofus)
will move the goalpost at the slightest provocation. Bill Ballard is another
who's quite capable of marching to a different drummer. But then, we all
must watch out for YOU! (Lord knows, someone needs to!)

I saw where Bill Maxim was going, but tried to induce another
'How many F's' sentence to see if we could swamp servers for yet another
month of off-topic material. It looks like I succeeded. That's what's called
a "grabber", and I'm glad you did.

Frankly, I'm surprised that you're unfamiliar with the use of Sterno for
medicinal purposes. 8-}

Jim Harvey, RPT
harvey@greenwood.net
________________________
I'm glad it's not my piano!
        -- Richard Davenport (date unknown)

> -----Original Message-----
>
> <<"The Lindeman family have been building pianos for 85 years."
> Jim Harvey or
> Susan Kline, can you correct the grammar?">>
> >><<"Be happy to: 'The Lindeman family have been building a piano for 85
> years'.
>
> It's all in good spirit folks. Which reminds me, I'm about out of
> Sterno!"<<>>
>
> Not only have two of my Icons let me down on a simple question of
> language but
> one of them is trying to pass off "sterno" as spirits!!
>
>   The useage of have in this context is rather stilted, and is
> definitely PC
> in this country.
> Have is a construct of have-has-had, each of which can often be used
> interchagably meaningwise if not structurewise (see ebonics)
>
> Has, the verb, is the third person singular present tense of
> have,  and would
> make more sense to the American english ear than does 'have' in
> the context in
> question,i.e "The Lindeman family 'has' been building"........... denoting
> that at that time the Lindeman family was still building ............
> Family is a single unit, albeit a collective singular, and
> should, IMNTBHO, be
> used with an appropriate adjunct, i.e. 'Family has' and not 'Family have'
> similarily 'Families have' rather than 'Families has'
>
> Confused?? play with these.... What traditions has the
> family?.......and....Have the family tradition(s) been maintained? (now
> remember the words to use are limited to have, has, and
> had....which are each
> a tense of the other and carry the same general meaning)  Three
> uses at the
> same time :-) He has the will to have had it.
> Question: do it bothersome worry be to you that you understand
> the sentence
> now that you understand it..? :-)
>   Of course arguing with my professor about this usage and in the
> "Jury are
> arguing" and "The State Trooper are on the scene" almost got me
> kicked out of
> grad school so don't listen to me...............................
>
> Hmm wonder if Sterno are on sale?? :-)
> Jim Bryant (FL)
>
>