Monday, May 19, 2008

Subjunctive Mood

I just wrote this letter to CNN. My faith in the average American grows weaker with each passing day ...

The transcript of the show can be found here.

Not only did i see them say this 2 days ago, but again this morning. Do these people go to college?

I have long been a viewer of CNN news and even sometimes a reader online, but I have to admit that I have been deeply disappointed in your network in the past 72 hours. Your coverage of Hillary Clinton's campaign speech in Kentucky included the following:

>>We heard something when she was talking about this gas tax, the break from the gas tax when she said, "If I were to be president," using a past tense as opposed to when "I become president this is what I'm going to do for you."

This is NOT past tense. Who says "I were going to the store yesterday to get some milk"? This is the subjunctive mood, something used to discuss an event that has not occurred and about which there is uncertainty.
To suggest that Mrs. Clinton's use of proper english grammar forgives doubts about her own candidacy is not only incorrect and uneducated, but highly biased.
If you need further lessons in grammar (or perhaps a better editor), please feel free to contact me.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

likely simplicity?

i have to be honest with you. i don't really buy heterosexuality.
whenever i say this to people, they always sort of laugh or disregard me or think i'm trying to be inflammatory-- in fact, whenever i share my thoughts and feelings in general, people seem to react in an extreme fashion. they hoot and holler and crap.
but i mean it when i say it. i just don't buy heterosexuality. it just doesn't seem very ... probable to me. it's kind of like the pied piper: i mean, i suppose it's scientifically possible that someone could play a flute and all the rats in town could follow him out of the city. and more than that, it's a pretty idea.
but is it likely?
i think the idea of heterosexuality-- that we're all born into a set of expectations, the fulfillment of which will naturally give us pleasure-- is a pretty idea. but i've learned in life that nothing is that simple. no one steps into their role that naturally or has such an easy time mapping their desires onto societal expectations. and if they do when they're 15 or 20, then they have a midlife crisis at 35 or 40.
and perhaps the prettiness of the idea alone gives away its improbability: think of other pretty ideas: santa claus, socialism, christianity-- how do we feel about them?