Subj : Food for Thought
To   : Paul Quinn
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Sat Jan 26 2019 23:52:53

Hi, Paul!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 AH>  Thanks to Dallas for sharing this article:

 AH>  -the-language-rules-we-know-but-dont-know-we-know

 AH>  I'm still chuckling over it, and I've requested the book
 AH>  from the library.  :-)

 PQ>  And that is why I've never feared purple people eaters.  :-P


        Or ferocious fire-breathing dragons, or enormous meat-eating dinosaurs?

        Now that you mention it... the lyrics say "a one-eyed one-horned flying 
purple people eater", IIRC.  I'm not quite sure how these added words would fit 
the theory, unless one considers them as +/- pertaining to shape, but the whole 
kit & kaboodle sounds right AFAIC.  You've reminded me of another song here too
.... i.e. the one about an "itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny yellow polka dot bikini".  It 
seems to me that with all of the above we're not afaid of them because, if they 
ever actually existed, they don't pose any real danger to us... and because, if 
the series is very long &/or very silly, it makes us laugh.

        Thankyou!  I hope other native speakers will join the fun.  I also hope 
somebody will have noticed that I used "a"... not "an"... with "one-eyed".  ;-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

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