Re: Boiling water

Stephen Calder wrote:
R J Valentine wrote:

}> }>> Another problem I had the manual didn't cover and the car
place didn't }> }>> have a procedure for and corporate in
Tennessee had settled on only after }> }>> replacing the horn
button with a balloon-bomb to satisfy the federal }> }>>
government and replacing the substitute buttons on the steering
wheel with }> }>> cruise-control controls and finally settling on
having an icon over a }> }>> particularly sensitive spot on the
balloon-bomb that you were supposed to }> }>> be able to find at
night when some idiot starts to pull in front of you. }> }> }>
}>Could you try that again? This sentence doesn't parse. }>
}> Come on, do you think that Dr. Aman would've let me get away
with it if it }> didn't parse? Six lines and not even a comma? And
to think I stuck in }> two settl*on's just to help in
resynching. }
} The sentence starts with a clause that never finishes.

The clause the sentence starts with is the object of the
prepositions "ending" the next three clauses. Between the
settl*on's is the lead-up to what was installed on my car and after
the "settling on" is what I
was actually presented with. The "settling on" is superfluous, and
the whole thing is certainly Oy!able. But "doesn't parse"? And
"never
finishes"? Isn't that a little harsh?


No, man, read it again....

Another problem I had (that) the manual didn't cover.....was what?

As I read it , "Another problem ([that] I had) " is the object of
three verb phrases: "didn't cover", "didn't have a procedure for",
and "had settled on", with subjects respectively "the manual", "the
car place" and "corporate in Tennessee", and with further shrubberies
ad lib.

Whimsical? Espiègle, even? Perhaps. You can't call it trolling,
though, when it offers such pleasant occupation to the parsophiles
among us.


.