The English Language Is Constantly Shifting, But . . .
I heard an interview with a university English professor the other day, and was surprised and dismayed to learn that she believes that most of the bad grammar we run across in our daily lives is actually the natural and legitimate evolution from a certain set off standards to another.
As an example, she said that the word “unique” has come to mean “rare,” as in “she has a fairly unique talent.” Really? What’s the matter with pointing out that it’s a grammatical error to qualify the word “unique?” A thing is either unique or it’s not.
Similarly, the sentence at the above left shows a disagreement of subject and verb. “Opportunities” is plural, so we need the plural “there are,” not the singular “there is.”
I’m worried that the rules of grammar are evaporating in front of our eyes, as this particular error has leapt into our language over just the last five years. For better or worse, I pay close attention to the type and frequency of mistakes like these, and I’m quite certain that this is a very recent thing.
IMO, it’s far harder on the ears than “fairly unique.” Even elementary school kids wouldn’t say, “There is two dogs barking.”
Not yet, any way. Again, I’m concerned about our grammatical future.
This nicely dressed fellow says, “I’ll stick with my gas-powered car,” and he’s at liberty to do that.
Like many lifelong Republicans, my mom is a reluctant Trump supporter. She disapproves of a great deal of the former president’s behavior, but, like many in her position, couldn’t bring herself to vote for a Democrat under any circumstances.
Senior energy analyst Glenn Doty sent me the meme here; clearly he makes a good point.
I seriously doubt that hypocritical Christians are driving people away from the religion as a whole. Yes, the evangelicals may be slightly more fanatical and hateful than they’ve ever been in the past, but this whole phenomenon has been around for 1500+ years, and it really hasn’t changed too much over that period of time.
I heard a captivating radio interview today with journalist 
As suggested here, the rest of the world thinks that the United States’ demand that it proliferate guns throughout its society qualifies us as completely insane. Hard to deny that.
Did God give you your love of other animals, or was it part of your basic nature?
18th Century Scottish philosopher David Hume spoke to us on how our minds interact with the world around us to form our base of knowledge, saying, “We always disbelieve the greater miracle.” In other words, when two of our perceptions appear to contradict one another, we automatically accept whichever seems to be more likely.
It’s said that when one joins a cult, the first thing one learns is that everyone else is lying, and the only source of truth is the cult leader himself.
