Spelling/punctuation/grammar (was Re: OT: Sci-fi (was...))

[Kenneth Brody]

Quoting John Esak (Mon, 31 Jul 2006 09:06:57 -0400):

> > Well, there's "oops, that was a slip of the fingers / brain fart", and
> > "I don't know the difference between it's and its, or
> > there/their/they're".
> > Who here has not heard of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves"?
> >
> > Please punctuate the following:
> >
> >     John where Nancy had had had had had had had had had had had a
> >     better effect.
>
> What's this all about? I hope it is not from my friendly fire about your
> "thought" typo...:-)

I forget who started it, but I hope you do know that this thread is
all light-hearted and semi-tongue-in-cheek.

> But, I'll byte... how could you punctuate what you've shown to make
> sense. I believe you can't.

Consider a writing assignment in which Nancy uses the past tense of "to
have", while John uses the past perfect tense.  The past perfect tense
was more effective.

    John, where Nancy had had "had", had had "had had".  "Had had" had
    had a better effect.

I heard this many years ago, when I was a kid.  Apparently, I'm not the
only one, as a quick Google shows numerous hits, though the names change
from version to version:

   
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22had+had+had+had+had+had+had+had+had+had+had%22

--
KenBrody at BestWeb dot net        spamtrap: <g8ymh8uf001 at sneakemail.com>
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