Here’s one that’s been floating around for a while. The newscaster is Marc Brown from KABC-TV in Los Angeles; the authenticity of what you’re seeing remains unknown. Not that it makes any difference.
A gem by Richard Matheson. One of my favorites. Part 1 of 3:
The Twilight Zone – Original Series, Season 1, Episode 23: A World of Difference; Original Air Date—11 March 1960; A businessman sitting in his office struggles to wrap his brain around what has just dawned on him.
Radical. Via the Twitter engineering team’s blog, an animated visual of Twitter’s explosive growth — personnel, code base, and popularity — from April 2006 to January 2010.
Icons represent developers, and particles represent files added or modified. It doesn’t cover prototypes or contributions to open source, so it isn’t exactly scientific, but it still goes to show Twitter’s explosive growth mirrored in engineering.
His Favorite Boots
by Jace Daniel (b. 1969)
There once was a young man browsing through items at a garage sale. This garage was packed with used things from the past, from old clothing and dusty books to corroded fishing poles and greasy tools to broken luggage and obsolete electronics. All spilling out onto the driveway, being poked and prodded by other strangers.
Waiting in the back corner of the garage was a crusty old pair of worn leather boots, and they caught the young man’s eye. Love at first sight.
“Check these out,” the young man said to himself as he picked up the boots in his hands. “These things must be sixty or seventy years old. I’ve never seen boots like these before.”
The young man dropped the boots to the floor and kicked off his shoes, stepping into the old boots one foot at a time.
“What luck!” the young man said to himself. “I’ve never felt a pair of boots fit so perfectly. It’s as if they were custom-made for my feet.”
The young man crouched down to inspect the unlabeled boots closely.
“All these things need is a good cleaning and an oil down. I can just put new soles on them, and they’ll be as good as new. There’s at least one more lifetime left in these boots.”
The young man stood and paced the crowded garage.
“I need these boots. I wonder how much they are.”
Walking out of the garage and onto the driveway, the young man saw an old man on the porch. Sitting in a wheelchair.
“Excuse me, sir,” the young man said. “Do you live here?”
The old man smiled.
“I see you’ve found my favorite boots. They fit?”
“Perfectly,” the young man said, pacing the driveway. “How old are they? Where’d you get them?”
“Those are some special boots,” the old man said. “There’s a damn good story that comes with those. A long time ago, when I was about your age, they saved my life.”
“Really?” the young man asked. “How?”
“I’ll tell you how. But you’ll have to buy the boots first.”
“Fair enough,” the young man said. “How much do you want for them?”
“That depends. How much are they worth to you?”
“I don’t know,” the young man said, wiggling his toes. “Say, ten bucks?”
“Fuck you. Twenty.”
The young man took out his wallet and counted his cash.
“How about fifteen?”
The old man smiled.
“Deal.”
From ProofreadNOW, as a follow up to this:
The article It is I vs. It is me brought in some great comments. It all proves that misuse of pronouns is the most common mistake people in all walks of life make. Fumbled pronouns are distractions, and they can kill your proposal, or your brochure, or your white paper, or even your sermon. You’ve heard us rail in this column against U.S. presidents for swerving their pronouns. Well, it does drive us crazy, to the point where we want to send our daughters’ grammar-challenged boyfriends off to the bookstore whenever they violate even the simplest rules of pronouns. (Hey, we can try, can’t we?) Herewith, some guidelines for all of us, hoping that we may avoid death by pronoun. And as always, if you just want to skip the explanations, you can focus on the examples given.
IS IT I or IS IT ME? Linking up
Guideline. Favor the SUBJECTIVE CASE form for pronouns that follow LINKING VERBS, but don’t force the issue in conversation.
- It was they who initiated the idea of holding the water ski tournament in Alaska. (They is in the subjective case because it follows the linking verb was.)
- It is we who must take the responsibility for the slalom course freezing over in the middle of the competition. (We is in the subjective case because it follows the linking verb is.)
But:
- If anyone can vouch for Magnolia’s expertise, it’s me. (I is technically correct as the predicate nominative, but me has become the natural choice and is now considered acceptable in all but very formal situations or when a particular effect of correctness is desired.)
ME TALKING or MY TALKING: Owning up
Guideline. Use the possessive case form of a pronoun that precedes a GERUND (usually the -ing form of a verb).
- My coming [not me coming] here today to discuss wetsuits for the skiers was not my idea. (Coming is a gerund that operates as the subject of the verb was. My, therefore, is in the possessive case.)
- We appreciate your listening so patiently to our complaints about hypothermia. (Listening is a gerund operating in this sentence as the object of appreciate. Your, as the modifier, is in the possessive case.)
A closer look. A VERB ending in -ing isn’t always a GERUND. It can sometimes be a PARTICIPLE that modifies a pronoun. In these situations, the pronoun is usually in the objective case. The distinction is one of emphasis: If the emphasis is on the action, use the possessive form. If the emphasis is on the pronoun more than the action, use the objective form.
- I hope you didn’t mind me interrupting your practice session. (Me would be the proper choice here, assuming the emphasis was on the pronoun and not on interrupting.)
- I could hear them arguing in the tow boat because I was skiing only 45 feet behind it. (The emphasis is on them and not on arguing.)
As opposed to:
- I could hear their arguing in the boat because I was skiing only 45 feet behind it. (The emphasis is on arguing.)
