Things I would miss if Lincoln had let the South secede.
1. The Appalachian Trail
2. Po' Boys
3. Bourbon
4. Megan Fox

End of list.

See, I'd be on the other side of that line (born to a Virginian and native of Tennessee), so I'd have Megan Fox, but I'd miss out on Chappaquiddick and the Kennedy's in general (good things to miss out on) but I'd also miss out on good German food (that would be sad for me) and sailing on the Great Lakes, although I'd still have Chesapeake Bay to sail on.

@Draug,
" ... I'd have Megan Fox..."

Worth it.

1. This thread is awesome.

2. regarding Texas: http://bit.ly/Udq18s

3. regarding grammar, the popular linguist Geoffrey Nunberg reminds us that linguistics is the antidote to grammarians: http://geoffreynunberg.com/ so read his essays and buy his books.

4. Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put!

Up isn't a preposition. You should have said "something with which I will not put up."

@MKECharlie

Your #4 is something I will not put UP WITH.

Up is a particle in that sentence.

Supposedly the the original words Churchill used were "“This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put."

MeepMeep "I will not put UP WITH" of course is that natural way to use those words. But according to old fashioned grammarians you should not end a sentence with a preposition. Churchill was lampooning this suposed "rule".

And my use of on ("sail on") was an adverb...


2on
adverb

Definition of ON


1

a : in or into a position of contact with an upper surface especially so as to be positioned for use or operation <put the plates on>

Yes, it's from Winston Churchill. And the great man lampooning the rule at such speed, it reflected his immense intellectual capacity.

*typo was lampooning

Yes, that could have been "with which I will not put up" though and been perfectly correct. Churchhill didn't understand that up was a particle/adverb in that instance and only the with was the preposition.

Actually I'm sure he did understand (the man was smart) and just chose to take it to an extreme, but the point is that the phrase is easily corrected and that this was prompted by the mistaken belief by MKECharlie that "on" as I used it was a preposition when it was, in fact, an adverb.

It's an odd phrase "put up" or "put up with", and I am not sure if it makes sense to break the individual words down into their individual parts of speech. Really the words together act as a verb meaning "tolerate".

May I propose a new word, "upwith"?

Given meepmeep is annoying, ignorant and makes a series of claims with no basis in fact it is surely relatively obvious which country he's from? He's american!

Eh, even I have broken English?

@Draug: It was actually a joke.
I would like to reiterate #3.

I'd also like to point out that there is no way to correctly split an infinitive.

What do you mean MKECarlie?
What about this, "to boldly go"? Is that not a "correct" split infinitive?

Quote from Raymond Chandler:
"Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split."

Narrowing it down: I say Hong Kong or Taiwan. Try mentioning Nanjing and we'll see if he's Japanese.

That's not a good reason for Texas to stay, Draug. It's not like the federal government has any actual savings -- it pays for everything from taxes, and Texas pays more than it gets back. If Texas left, it could offer a lower tax rate and provide the same social security, disaster relief, etc., because people would no longer be paying it to the feds.

Except Texas doesn't have the borrowing.power and would have to start printing it's own currency and set up administrations to handle these new functions. The cost of running a small country is significantly higher than running a state.

Can we please blame California for all of America's problems some more? That sounds like fun.

Can we please speak to Japan about Nanking?

meep...meep

Seems like Roadrunner is roadkill. Such a pity.

Just for clarity

"I read the news, next year the Scottish folks will vote to leave England"

Firstly, Scotland is not part of England and never has been. Both are part of the United Kingdom. Secondly the Scottish folk in England are not getting a vote, but the English in Scotland are.

IMHO the referendum will fail.