Subj : Re: show goes on To : mark lewis From : alexander koryagin Date : Fri Jul 06 2018 22:01:01 From: alexander koryagin Hi, mark lewis! I read your message from 23.08.2013 12:18 about show goes on. ak>> my error is here! I put a comma after that words but I can't ak>> remove them! ak>> [Yesterday, at 9 pm, my neighbors bought a piano.] ak>> The sentence has lost its sense of humor! The comma was put ak>> wrongly. So the final version (IMHO of course) is: ak>> [Yesterday, at 9pm, without declaring a war my neighbors bought a ak>> piano.] ML> you should flip it around if you are not going to use the comma... ML> here it is stripped to its essence... ML> [My neighbors bought a piano without declaring a war.] or ML> full-blooded ML> [Yesterday, at 9pm, my neighbors bought a piano without declaring a ML> war.] IMHO, the essential part of the humorous sense of this story is taking the listener aback. So, the story in my interpretation begins as an official statement about the war beginning which is broadcasting on the radio. The first part of the sentence should be spoken with a serious, official tone of voice, like was spoken this: "Today, at 3 hour in the morning, without declaring a war, Fascist Germany attacked our country." (this is a real citation of the USSR announcer, when he annonced the war in June 22, 1941). (BTW, here the words "without declaring a war" are not essential, and I put a comma after them - separating the elements of the list). So, actually, this story is a parody, and the the funny side of the situation is becoming visible after we tell of the piano buying. IMHO we should hide the words about the piano until the last moment, making the listener intrigued as much as possible. Bye, mark! Alexander Koryagin fido7.english-tutor 2013 --- ifmail v.2.15dev5.4 * Origin: NPO RUSnet InterNetNews site (2:5020/400) .