Comments on: Mea maxima culpa

By: lyzard

lyzard — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:21:38 +0000

Grammar Police away, Benj – it’s usually me doing that, so I can hardly object! Using “themself” in this instance is similar to using “their” in place of “his or her”, a cheat to reduce the cumbersomeness of the sentence…which doesn’t make it any less incorrect, o’ course…

By: MatthewF

MatthewF — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:40:14 +0000

Will the confession be along the lines of ‘actually I’ve been making these films up for years, there is no studio in Romania’? because that would explain a lot.

By: Gentle Benj

Gentle Benj — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:44:47 +0000

I was not getting all Grammar Police on you, Lyz, I promise! The emergence of the word “themself” as the reflexive form of the ungendered singular “them” is just really really interesting to me.

By: ProfessorKettlewell

ProfessorKettlewell — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:02:19 +0000

This reminds me of the game “humiliation” which David Lodge describes in ‘Changing Places’…..anyone familiar?

By: lyzard

lyzard — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:31:24 +0000

I throw myself on the mercy of the court and plead the fact that WordPress hates me: every minor update like this takes me almost as long as writing a review. By the time I get done, I’m so frazzled I don’t know what I’m saying.

By: Gentle Benj

Gentle Benj — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:37:49 +0000

The b-movie fan in me wants to get stoked for this, but the linguist in me won’t stop geeking out about the “themself” in Lyz’s post.

By: Baron Scarpia

Baron Scarpia — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 10:01:54 +0000

I wonder what Ken hasn’t seen. Personally, I’m waiting for his review of Myra Breckinridge…

(Yes, I’ve seen it. It’s one of the only three films I’ve seen that I find absolutely intolerable.)

By: The Rev. D.D.

The Rev. D.D. — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:21:19 +0000

Ooooo, I think this’ll be a neat one.

Not just because of the mocking that will no doubt take place, either. There’s also the….hrmm….the, uh….

OK maybe just for the mockery.

By: DaveCausey

DaveCausey — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:05:41 +0000

I can’t wait to see this one!

By: El Santo

El Santo — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:34:44 +0000

We didn’t do the usual round of pre-roundtable coordination and dibs-calling, either, so we get to be just as thoroughly flabbergasted as the rest of you at the things we’ll be owning up to over the next month.