Dangling Around

[philhege]

From the BBC RSS news feed:

"The widow of the Earl of Shaftesbury has been found guilty of arranging his murder by a French court."

Nasty chaps, those French court members.

Phil Hegedusich
Senior Programmer/Analyst
IIMAK

http://www.iimak.com

-----------
Not NULL-terminated yet.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[Trevoke]

I don't get what's funny.. ?

Tao Te Ching Discussions : Chapter 8 (includes links to previous chapters)

 

[Thadeus]

Trevoke, She's been found guilty of arranging to have the French Court murder her husband. Read it with that in mind.

~Thadeus

 

[Trevoke]

Oh. I'm sorry.. I didn't catch that. The sentence is grammatically correct, just prone to misunderstanding.. I see
I suppose you could also wonder why the Earl's widow is a man, by those same standards.

Tao Te Ching Discussions : Chapter 8 (includes links to previous chapters)

 

[p5wizard]

...why the Earl's widow is a man...

And why would he choose that difficult/expensive suicide method. And plus, being found guilty of it...

p5

 

[SantaMufasa]

The sentence is grammatically correct.

Actually, the sentence suffers, grammatically, from a misplaced dependent clause and totally unnecessary weak passive voice. Properly re-written, the sentence should read:

A French court convicted the widow of the Earl of Shaftesbury for arrainging the Earl's murder.

The important questions, IMHO, are:



1) Who the #$%& hired the writer(s) of the "BBC RSS news feed"? and

2) Who the #$%& gave (without any meaningful final exam) the writer(s) a degree in any discipline relating to journalism? and

3) Why the #$%& is anyone paying "BBC RSS" for their "journalistic" drivel?


Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[AlexCuse]

The most important questions IMO are mostly jokes about the Earl of Shaftesbury's title!

Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom

 

[SantaMufasa]

Yes, Alex, you are certainly correct!

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[stackdump]

The widow of the Earl of Shaftesbury has been found guilty of arranging his murder by a French court."

How do you know it doesn't mean that the arrangements were made with the widow standing next to a French court? The court may have been busy on other matters and she negotiated a deal standing nearby. Perhaps they need a sign "persons are requested to not to arrange murders in the vicinity of this court".

Or does it perhaps mean the murder was arranged to take place with the victim being felled next to a court? Maybe it was a practical consideration that if found out, it would not be so far to carry the body in as exhibit A.

 

[KenCunningham]

Courting disaster, I'd call it.

I want to be good, is that not enough?

 

[CajunCenturion]

I think she should appeal that sentence.

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[SantaMufasa]

Yes, CC, any sentence that is that poorly constructed is not very appeal ing and should expect a reversal.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[philhege]

Well, in any event, the Earl got shafted.

"Having studied English grammar for several years, this sentence construction perplexes me."

There are a ton of funnier examples; perhaps I'll look them up. Of course, the preceding sentence violates a rule "up with which I will not put.