GODDAMMIT!

[Tobin S.]

My Dream Theater "Images and Words" disk is skipping.

[Dr Morbius]

1. Try cleaning it. Sometimes little spots of dirt cause that. (nt)

[Tobin S.]

2. You don't say. I was about ready to use it as a frisbee at the cookout later today.

[Tobin S.]

3. Actually it's scratched all to hell and back

Looks like it's already been used as a frisbee. I don't know how that happened but it probably involves alcohol and loss of long term memory.

[Heidi]

4. Such coarse language!

:rofl:

[Tobin S.]

5. Us truckers aren't known for our poetic musings

Actually, I just like to be hyperbolic every once in a while. But only in jest. :)

[Heidi]

6. Well, I know a young, smart, handsome trucker

in Ohio who is a very fine writer. So there! :)

[Tobin S.]

7. Thanks :)

:blush:

[Dr Morbius]

8. Aha. Since you've been identified as "young", I'll try to correct something.

It's "we truckers" at the beginning of a sentence, and in the predicate of a sentence it's "us truckers". Basically, it works the same as "you and me" versus "you and I"; get rid of the add-on, which is "truckers" in your instance and "you" in mine, and see what sounds correct. "We aren't known for our poetic musings" sounds better than "Us aren't known...", so go with "we" in that case.

See how it works? I don't want to be a grammar dictator, but it's a very common error - even the President gets it wrong on a regular basis - and I notice. For those who know how pronoun modifiers should be employed, it grates, just a little. For the many who don't really know but kind of "sound it out", they know somewhere deep in their mind how it's supposed to work and they're impressed by grammatical excellence. One seems smarter, actually, by being grammatically precise.

We're living in an age of philosophunculism; it's almost more important now to seem smart than to actually be smart. Think about THAT a moment! Then again, it is important to seem not to be too smart, for no one trusts anyone who's always right. Recall Socrates.

Anyway, it's "We truckers", not "Us truckers", and you aren't hyperbolic at all, except in the sense gentle bumps technically count as parabola! Carry on!

[Tobin S.]

9. I did it wrong on purpose.

:D