Did anyone mention mom of 5 with 5 brilliant military kids (or whatever they are)?

I hate the “You are a terrible person” posts. That happens to me a couple of times a year. I write some deep dark feeling, like pondering whether my sister’s mean personality is a result of unhappiness with her obesity, and people come out screaming at me and telling me I’m terrible.

Cabbage Lady in Diet & Exercise

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will go first.

-open school now poster
- I work in IC poster
- I am a scientist poster
- “short it” poster (money forum)
- TJ/UVA boosters

Who’s yours?

- the poster(s) who believe there is a single "open school now" poster and can't comprehend that many parents are extremely fed up with public school teachers/districts/teachers unions.

+2 (see, there are at least two of us)

+1 - making it at least three.

well, you three will have to share the first prize

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I edit professionally. I despise the grammar posts.

I’m also an editor, and I love the grammar posts and have definitely contributed my share.

^Same! I’m the author of a fewer vs. less clarification thread.

High five, fellow editor!

🤚🏽🤚🏽🤚🏽🤚🏽

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I edit professionally. I despise the grammar posts.

I’m also an editor, and I love the grammar posts and have definitely contributed my share.

^Same! I’m the author of a fewer vs. less clarification thread.

High five, fellow editor!

In the less v fewer thread (that’s my least favorite prescriptive grammar rule; the only good thing about it was that I got the game of thrones jokes), did the history of the rule come up?

From Wikipedia:

Descriptive grammarians consider this to be a case of hypercorrection as explained in Pocket Fowler’s Modern English Usage.[7][3] A British supermarket chain replaced its "10 items or less" notices at checkouts with "up to 10 items" to avoid the issue.[8][9] It has also been noted that it is less common to favour "At fewest ten items" over "At least ten items" – a potential inconsistency in the "rule",[10] and a study of online usage seems to suggest that the distinction may, in fact, be semantic rather than grammatical.[3] Likewise, it would be very unusual to hear the unidiomatic "I have seen that film at fewest ten times." [11][failed verification]

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage notes that the "pressure to substitute fewer for less seems to have developed out of all proportion to the ambiguity it may provide in noun phrases like less promising results".

Less has always been used in English with countable nouns. Indeed, the application of the distinction between less and fewer as a rule is a phenomenon originating in the 18th century. On this, Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage notes:[2]

As far as we have been able to discover, the received rule originated in 1770 as a comment on less: "This Word is most commonly used in speaking of a Number; where I should think Fewer would do better. 'No Fewer than a Hundred' appears to me, not only more elegant than 'No less than a Hundred', but more strictly proper." (Baker 1770).[13] Baker's remarks about 'fewer' express clearly and modestly – 'I should think,' 'appears to me' – his own taste and preference....Notice how Baker's preference has been generalized and elevated to an absolute status and his notice of contrary usage has been omitted."
The oldest use that the Oxford English Dictionary gives for less with a countable noun is a quotation from 888 by Alfred the Great:

Swa mid læs worda swa mid ma, swæðer we hit yereccan mayon.
("With less words or with more, whether we may prove it.")

Anonymous wrote:Mom's who slam Dad's in terms of custody and child support and make every Dad out to be a bad person.

^^This poster right here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will go first.

-open school now poster
- I work in IC poster
- I am a scientist poster
- “short it” poster (money forum)
- TJ/UVA boosters

Who’s yours?

- the poster(s) who believe there is a single "open school now" poster and can't comprehend that many parents are extremely fed up with public school teachers/districts/teachers unions.

+2 (see, there are at least two of us)

+1 - making it at least three.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I edit professionally. I despise the grammar posts.

I’m also an editor, and I love the grammar posts and have definitely contributed my share.

^Same! I’m the author of a fewer vs. less clarification thread.

High five, fellow editor!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mind when threads and posts are reported, but I wonder if some folks go too far.

I often wonder why my Marriage & Farts thread disappeared. I was genuinely curious about the topic, and people were being pretty candid and respectful. Then poof (no pun), it was gone.

Yes some reporters do go too far, and then people comlain about how slow the board is and it's the same topics over and over again. Sometimes a bit of controversy is a good thing.

+1

Sometimes lengthy, great discussions get deleted because a thread veers a little off-topic. So incredibly frustrating.

Reporters should focus on trolls, not making sure that every single thread follows the rules 100% of the time. Work on your EQ, people. You're not robots.

Agree. And the ones who report a thread for being in the wrong forum are really over the top. "This belongs in diet and exercise, not health and medicine!!" Can't they just ignore things they don't want to read?

I don't report misplaced threads but I sometimes comment that a particular topic might get more play in Diet and Exercise than Beauty and Fashion, for example. Up to the OP if they want to ask Jeff to move it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The “bolt-ons” poster in the Trump fashion mishaps thread

Aww, I was the one who started that! I feel so seen. <3

The worst

Glad I could get under your skin so easily, dear.

Are there any other people who are fascinated with the history of the English language who don’t like grammar police? I feel like harping on prescriptive grammar rule violations on an informal anonymous forum shows that you think you’re superior when you really aren’t. (Same with taking issue with phrases like “I feel like.”)

Anonymous wrote:The parents insist that all teenagers must be drinking, doing, drugs, and having sex, and if you think yours isn't you are lying to yourself or your kid is lying to you.

+1

I appreciate the posters who report really bad stuff. I often just forget it’s an option to report.

I love the grammar nerd posts (I'm not the grammar nerd). People are especially picky when the OP is an idiot or nasty. It doesn't get old.