The Walzes' house. The house belonging to the Walzes. Just like "the books' covers." I am confident that this momentary, inexplicable fog will clear and you will remember this lesson from second grade.
Gene Poolers: Gene has excellent grammar, spelling, etc., when he's not writing in the heat of the moment; copy editors know him as a "clean" writer.
Though in all honesty, if you just want to dissuade somebody you should probably talk about your Rottweilers. Guns are a popular target for house thieves. Dogs are … not.
And when I was going through the Army Intel School in Baltimore, we had a segment on security where they said: "The value of a dog in your home is that it barks, not that it is big or a fighter. A chow is just as good and likely barks more." But I see the point, too.
Following last month’s one-time Taylor Swift-themed contest to bring the Invitational into modern times, this week’s contest features inkers referencing Imelda Marcos, Cary Grant, Nat King Cole, Jake LaMotta, Bob Seger, Yoko Ono, Jose Feliciano, Mark Spitz, and Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
It also has names alluding to Elon Musk, Sonya Sotomayor, Kamala Harris, Heidi Klum, "March of the Penguins," "Seinfeld," and Rachel Maddow. I'm sorry if you can't find humor in any references to the people you mentioned; they're not exactly obscure references familiar only to baby boomers.
One of these days you’re going to realize you’re older than the people you were making fun of for being too old at the time. Unless you get hit by a bus.
We actually have a quite nice hanging light fixture in our hall bathroom. When we moved in, there was only a very utilitarian (and very ugly) ceiling fixture, but when we replaced the hanging fixture in my office (formerly a bedroom) with a ceiling fan (with light), we moved the attractive fixture to the bathroom. Not a chandelier (no candles), but a hanging fixture.
I was "in between contracts" when I got an offer to work at the Secret Service headquarters. My first day in, I'm going through a bunch of papers I found on the desk of the previous occupant trying to get my bearing on what I needed to do.. There was some weird stuff in there, including a copy of his driver's license, a bank statement and paper copies of a bunch of emails he had sent to a "woman" in Nigeria. Apparently he thought he as going to marry her. I found out from others, that he had been doing all of this at work, on the heavily monitored Secret Service internet line. I was told, "Oh, yeah , they came in one day and just took him right out. Told him to leave everything except his personal possessions."
I am at a loss -- which proves that I am a Loser -- to figure out why Mulva the Beaver wasn't the winner. I recited the top entries to two people in my office. All the top entries got laughs. Imelda the Centipede got a big laugh. Mulva the Beaver got howls and guffaws . I guess I now know who were Seinfeld fans.
When I was in basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC, back in '66, my platoon sergeant had no problem calling me Pvt. Dawl. (I say DOY-uhl.) But I know that many Americans pronounce words like "oil" and "boil" with a single syllable. MW notes the difference with this pronunciation guide:
Diphthongs! After reading all the comments, I'm beginning to think that any word with a long vowel has an extra syllable. "Day" is pronounced "day-ee," "foam" is pronounced "fo-um," "eye" is pronounced "i-e," etc.
When I was much, much younger, I was prone to exaggerations, sometimes fibs. I’ve since learned to be more satisfied with sticking to the truth because it’s real and what actually happened, even if I’m the only one who knows for sure.
Squirrel and girl rhyme just fine if you have a southern drawl! With a drawl, monosyllabic words become multi-syllabic while some multi-syllabic words become monosyllabic. Example: "Chris" becomes "Chree-yuss," "girl" becomes "gurrrel" and "squirrel" becomes "squrl." Citation: Lived in Georgia for seven years.
Refrigerator decorations? I can see it for some who do not cook (much) and outside of some expected items have lots of space in their refrigerators. Might as well put in stuff for decorations. On the other hand, we who cook, and even keep left overs, and shop for sales to stay stocked and solvent do fill our boxes with stuff as full as we can. And eat the rest. Or as I read: "We eat what we can and can what we can't." Can we?
I have often referred to our fridge as comparable to a 15-puzzle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_puzzle if you're not familiar with it), as usually something has to be moved to get to something else--requires serious Tetris skills.
We looked at fridges with the freezer drawer at the bottom, which I'd admired in other homes, including our daughter's (hers also has an intermediate extra cold drawer), but we finally realized this would not suit the way we use a freezer. Barney didn't want to have to bend over to get his ice cream, and most of the rest of the freezer content is beer glasses, flour and meal and spices, and backup bread loaves and bagels, with the occasional frozen dinner to be used almost immediately (and I also stock up on cranberries in season so I can make cranberry sauce year-round). So we got a side-by-side that suits us very well.
I don't think so. Because the singular possessive of a name that ends in "s' would be Jonas's, not Jonas'.
Although I remember some odd "rule" that saints or gods were exempt from this: thus, the possessive of Jesus was Jesus', not Jesus's. Why, I have no idea.
Huh? This is the plural possessive of a name ending in z, which is a different matter. And anyway, what are you doing down here arguing with me rather than up at the top declaring Empress Pat Myers to be wrong?
5. Plural proper nouns ending in ‘s.’ If a proper noun is plural, representing a whole family, for example, and ends in ‘s’, you’ll want to add an ‘es’ followed by an apostrophe, as in “the Sanderses’ driveway.” This rule also applies when a plural proper noun ends in ‘z’, as in “the Sanchezes’ dog.”
Timing can be everything. I managed to save my money for library school in Texas (A big deal with only two locations in the state) and graduated in 1976. Great time since my first job was to manage a library service to do online database searches for a fee. That gave me the sills to manage and even design library computer systems and services. Kept me working in god jobs and I got my last work at FDA when I was 60. And now with schools downsizing being a librarian is not so great. But still a risky profession with so many censors and nut cases on the prowl.
No! The possessive of Walzes is Walzes': "The Walzes' mailbox surely says 'The Walzes' and not 'The Walz's' or whatever."
So if you were talking about the house owned by all the Walzes, you would say ... what? It would NOT be the Walzes's house?
The Walzes' house. The house belonging to the Walzes. Just like "the books' covers." I am confident that this momentary, inexplicable fog will clear and you will remember this lesson from second grade.
Gene Poolers: Gene has excellent grammar, spelling, etc., when he's not writing in the heat of the moment; copy editors know him as a "clean" writer.
I think he panicked, feeling as if the Walzes were closing in.
If I were the one writing, it would simply be “the house owned by the Walzes” and stay that way.
No! As (ahem) I pointed out in I think the first comment on here, it would be the Walzes' house. That's how plural possessives work.
Nice explanation here: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/18/nx-s1-5075211/the-harris-walz-campaign-is-confusing-grammar-nerds-everywhere
“Do you sleep well?” “Yes, and it’s a good thing too because my spouse’s insomnia leaves them up with nothing to do but clean their guns all night.”
"This is my rifle, ..."
Though in all honesty, if you just want to dissuade somebody you should probably talk about your Rottweilers. Guns are a popular target for house thieves. Dogs are … not.
And when I was going through the Army Intel School in Baltimore, we had a segment on security where they said: "The value of a dog in your home is that it barks, not that it is big or a fighter. A chow is just as good and likely barks more." But I see the point, too.
No argument. But if you’re already on the phone lying through your teeth…
My faves included Judy's Cary Granite, Michael's Elon Mush, Duncan's Venison Van Gogh, and Chris's Chamois Sosa.
Following last month’s one-time Taylor Swift-themed contest to bring the Invitational into modern times, this week’s contest features inkers referencing Imelda Marcos, Cary Grant, Nat King Cole, Jake LaMotta, Bob Seger, Yoko Ono, Jose Feliciano, Mark Spitz, and Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
It also has names alluding to Elon Musk, Sonya Sotomayor, Kamala Harris, Heidi Klum, "March of the Penguins," "Seinfeld," and Rachel Maddow. I'm sorry if you can't find humor in any references to the people you mentioned; they're not exactly obscure references familiar only to baby boomers.
I'm surprised ol' Jesse didn't mention Shakespeare as being an ancient reference. Cause he IS almost 500 years old, the codger.
One of these days you’re going to realize you’re older than the people you were making fun of for being too old at the time. Unless you get hit by a bus.
Bathroom chandeliers? Trump beat you to it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/06/12/trump-bathroom-chandelier-classified-documents-indictment/
And you beat me to this mention! The image of top secret boxes of docs under the chandelier….ooof!
But guys ... that was the joke! It was a joke within a joke.
Sometimes you're just too good for us. Of course you knew you were saying that. Sigh, mea culpa, Czar.
We actually have a quite nice hanging light fixture in our hall bathroom. When we moved in, there was only a very utilitarian (and very ugly) ceiling fixture, but when we replaced the hanging fixture in my office (formerly a bedroom) with a ceiling fan (with light), we moved the attractive fixture to the bathroom. Not a chandelier (no candles), but a hanging fixture.
OOO..the Nigerian scam....this is a true story...
I was "in between contracts" when I got an offer to work at the Secret Service headquarters. My first day in, I'm going through a bunch of papers I found on the desk of the previous occupant trying to get my bearing on what I needed to do.. There was some weird stuff in there, including a copy of his driver's license, a bank statement and paper copies of a bunch of emails he had sent to a "woman" in Nigeria. Apparently he thought he as going to marry her. I found out from others, that he had been doing all of this at work, on the heavily monitored Secret Service internet line. I was told, "Oh, yeah , they came in one day and just took him right out. Told him to leave everything except his personal possessions."
I am at a loss -- which proves that I am a Loser -- to figure out why Mulva the Beaver wasn't the winner. I recited the top entries to two people in my office. All the top entries got laughs. Imelda the Centipede got a big laugh. Mulva the Beaver got howls and guffaws . I guess I now know who were Seinfeld fans.
As far as I am able to determine, the Walzes are far from possessive.
{Rimshot}
Merriam-Webster's pronunciation for "squirrel" is:
squirrel noun
squir·rel ˈskwər(-ə)l
That means SKWER-uhl or SKWERL, the latter of which rhymes with "girl."
For comparison, here is "her":
her adjective
(h)ər, ˈhər
The problem is that no matter how hard you try, SKWERL is a 2-syllable word and GIRL is not.
It is 2 syllables when I say it. GURR-UHL. Sorry I don't fit in your wurr-uhld.
When I was in basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC, back in '66, my platoon sergeant had no problem calling me Pvt. Dawl. (I say DOY-uhl.) But I know that many Americans pronounce words like "oil" and "boil" with a single syllable. MW notes the difference with this pronunciation guide:
oil noun
ˈȯi(-ə)l
Diphthongs! After reading all the comments, I'm beginning to think that any word with a long vowel has an extra syllable. "Day" is pronounced "day-ee," "foam" is pronounced "fo-um," "eye" is pronounced "i-e," etc.
When I was much, much younger, I was prone to exaggerations, sometimes fibs. I’ve since learned to be more satisfied with sticking to the truth because it’s real and what actually happened, even if I’m the only one who knows for sure.
Squirrel and girl rhyme just fine if you have a southern drawl! With a drawl, monosyllabic words become multi-syllabic while some multi-syllabic words become monosyllabic. Example: "Chris" becomes "Chree-yuss," "girl" becomes "gurrrel" and "squirrel" becomes "squrl." Citation: Lived in Georgia for seven years.
I once read something on the Southern drawl -- two syllables become one, and vice versa -- in which Lord Byron becomes Lowered Barn.
I'm from Iowa and have the Midwestern no accent accent they say is the purest accent there is and gurr-uhl is definitely two syllables to me.
Refrigerator decorations? I can see it for some who do not cook (much) and outside of some expected items have lots of space in their refrigerators. Might as well put in stuff for decorations. On the other hand, we who cook, and even keep left overs, and shop for sales to stay stocked and solvent do fill our boxes with stuff as full as we can. And eat the rest. Or as I read: "We eat what we can and can what we can't." Can we?
I have often referred to our fridge as comparable to a 15-puzzle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_puzzle if you're not familiar with it), as usually something has to be moved to get to something else--requires serious Tetris skills.
You are so right! I tell my wife we need to know geometry to find space. And who knows what is at the bottom of the freezer drawer?
We looked at fridges with the freezer drawer at the bottom, which I'd admired in other homes, including our daughter's (hers also has an intermediate extra cold drawer), but we finally realized this would not suit the way we use a freezer. Barney didn't want to have to bend over to get his ice cream, and most of the rest of the freezer content is beer glasses, flour and meal and spices, and backup bread loaves and bagels, with the occasional frozen dinner to be used almost immediately (and I also stock up on cranberries in season so I can make cranberry sauce year-round). So we got a side-by-side that suits us very well.
Wouldn't that (plural possessive) be Walzes', as in the Walzes' childless communist cat-loving friends ?
I don't think so. Because the singular possessive of a name that ends in "s' would be Jonas's, not Jonas'.
Although I remember some odd "rule" that saints or gods were exempt from this: thus, the possessive of Jesus was Jesus', not Jesus's. Why, I have no idea.
Huh? This is the plural possessive of a name ending in z, which is a different matter. And anyway, what are you doing down here arguing with me rather than up at the top declaring Empress Pat Myers to be wrong?
I'm scared of the Empress! And isn't a Z like an S?
5. Plural proper nouns ending in ‘s.’ If a proper noun is plural, representing a whole family, for example, and ends in ‘s’, you’ll want to add an ‘es’ followed by an apostrophe, as in “the Sanderses’ driveway.” This rule also applies when a plural proper noun ends in ‘z’, as in “the Sanchezes’ dog.”
https://demmelearning.com/blog/when-to-use-an-apostrophe/
The best by far was Donkey Jote!
My favorites: Mulva the Beaver and Boutros Boutros Collie! Hilarious contest this week. Good on you all!
Timing can be everything. I managed to save my money for library school in Texas (A big deal with only two locations in the state) and graduated in 1976. Great time since my first job was to manage a library service to do online database searches for a fee. That gave me the sills to manage and even design library computer systems and services. Kept me working in god jobs and I got my last work at FDA when I was 60. And now with schools downsizing being a librarian is not so great. But still a risky profession with so many censors and nut cases on the prowl.
skills
You do know you can edit a comment?
I do. But ... not then.