Too, to or two?? It isn't that hard!

[Brendan]

Anyhoo, let us once again to Star Trek. The split infinite never bothered me too much. I just assumed they forgot to put the commas in. What bothers me is the concept of, ?Space - the final frontier.?

A frontier is the area where your stuff ends and another bit of stuff starts. You can always push further into the other stuff (as long as the UN doesn?t stop you) and then you will have another frontier. So a frontier isn?t final unless nothing exists on the other side of it.

Now this is possibly true of space, if you mean the sort of existence-balloon of space-time that houses our reality. Perhaps nothing exists outside of this but perhaps something does and we just aren?t able to perceive it.

Which is all very well but it is as much a final frontier to someone sitting in a barrel of pilchards in 18th century Ipswich as it is to people in matching pyjamas in a spaceship in the far-flung future.

Trouble is I don?t think that is what they meant at all. I think they were talking about the places outside of the earth?s atmosphere that you have to wear pyjamas and ride a spaceship to visit. Like Saturn and Hollywood. There may be new frontiers out there but final ones?

Well maybe if you suddenly come up against the end of space like a big wall. But that doesn?t exist apparently. It?s all supposed to sort of fold in on itself.

Isn?t it?

Or have the men in white coats and old jumpers changed their minds again?

[maxxi]

I always thought it was a subjective opinion; that, as he said it, this was a monologue by Kirk who was always a bit of a div anyway.

[El Pibe]

I think the frontier is a more amorphous concept than that, more a lawless area rather than a bigg rubber sheath, it continues the Western analogy that was the original star trek vision, basically Gunsmoke on a submarine...err..in the future.

[El Pibe]

Plus I think it's fine to obstinately split infintives, especially if it winds people up ;)

[Brendan]

I barely notice it to be honest. It's certainly never given me wind before.

[maxxi]

The frontier surely stretches "To infinitives and beyond!"*

*Ad infinitum et ultra! (motto of the Oxford Anarchists)

[Moos]

Why does no-one ever suggest Boldly to go?

Patrick Stewart coulda pulled it off.

[El Pibe]

Badly Acting... scans AND makes more sense.

[the-e-dealer]

Lovely Bit in Family Guy version of Star Wars where Han Solo Asks for Urgent Help from The Enterprise and Stewart says "We are taking tea at the moment"

[david_carnell]

Today's Evening Standard have picked up our baton.

The hitherto unbeknownst-to-me-but-now-love-of-my-imaginary-life Rosamund Urwin criticises both prospective mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone for:

"Watch out! There's less police about"

in a campaign poster - all those with O-Level English will know that "police" is a count noun and should therefore should be prefixed with "fewer" (I recently read that a supermarket has changed it's aisle posters but can't remember which one) - and she also knocks Prime Minister David Cameron for insisting:

"...on saying 'try and' whenever he speaks. An Eton education apparently isn't enough to impart the information that this sense of 'try' is followed by an infinitive."

She also admits to being a "young fogey" and reading Simon Heffer's Strictly English on holiday. I think I might be in love.

[Brendan]

So I win on the basis that anyone who criticises the prime minister can't be wrong.

[El Pibe]

reading her biog I pity your alter ego and his misguided crush

"Rosamund is a reporter on the City desk with a fashion obsession. It has regularly been noted that this combination makes her a real-life Rebecca Bloomwood from Confessions of a Shopaholic, although she hopes with more financial savvy and better taste in clothes."

Especially given the fallaciousness "taht[sic] this sense of 'try' is followed by an infinitive."

Standards of journalism these days eh! *she is rather pretty though I'll grant you*

[david_carnell]

*feels crushed and devalued*

I hadn't researched her to such depths to discover that abomination.

[Brendan]

Abominations often dwell at depth. Don't ask me why. Maybe they like it down there.

Nothing like a bit of cyber stalking (done on your behalf but I'm sure without your permission) to devalue a good crush.

[maxxi]

I recently read that a supermarket has changed it's aisle posters but can't remember which one

My favourite sentence of the day

[Moos]

Alas, alas. Whither Ted, wherefore hath Hon deserted us?

[Annette Curtain]

*swoon*

[maxxi]

plus ?a change, plus c'est la m?m-....etc.

[first mate]

Hugo,

H said

------------------------------

People get confused about dyslexia (unwitting pun) - it's not about spelling problems, and those spelling problems which are created are usually quite specific, not general grammatical rules.

True dyslexia is much broader than simply confusing or transposing letters, for example mistaking ?b? and ?d.".

In general, symptoms of DRD may include:

- Difficulty determining the meaning (idea content) of a simple sentence

- Difficulty learning to recognize written words

- Difficulty rhyming

What's your source for that info? I'd always thought,perhaps erroneously, that dyslexia was an umbrella term that covered a range of things, and that most involve problems with memory processing. In this way problems with category, especially that sound the same- two/too/to- might arise as a result of dyselxia.

[Huguenot]

I've no doubt that they could first mate. My point was more that these would be part of a significant portfolio of problems.

Not being able or willing to spell correctly is not the definition of dyslexia. Having worked so closely with someone who genuinely suffered from dyslexia I generously get offended on his behalf when idle ingrates claim that they're dyslexic as a get out of jail free card.

That definition of dyslexia was from one of the big medical associations, but I forget which.

[Senor Chevalier]

Using likely to mean "probably" rather than "probable". An awful turn of phrase IMHO that seems to afflict those of an American or Canadian persuasion though unchecked will likely spread more widely...