Who dat girl think she is?
What's weird is that a lot of other people whose blogs I read seemed to just come back from a blogging break. I feel better knowing that I'm not the only one. Not that I've gone as long this time as I have in the past.
Really, I'm just procrastinating checking my notes on how Sunday at the SFF went for me. Part of the problem may be that I already wrote it all down (by hand in a tiny little notebook that still lives in my Sundance coat pocket... so far away from where I am waking up right now). I'm at my desk sipping coffee and basking in the tentative anxiety of being on my computer. One hard drive failed and for some reason I'm expecting this one to go at any time. Like using it will cause it to fail. I'm not normally a superstitious person, but I done been spooked.
Speaking of ill grammar usage, I would just like to say for the record that I am sick and tired of people writing and saying the word "that" in place of the word "who." For example, this sentence is correct:
"There are many people who deserve an email reply from me today."
This sentence irritates me:
"There are many people that deserve an email reply from me today."
I'm not a grammar expert. I had to look up the defined reason why the two are different, but that doesn't mean that I didn't learn at some point in my life that the word "that" should not be used in conjunction with a person. There are subtle differences implied in the misuse of the word "that," mostly related to grammatically treating a person like an object instead of a subject.
Then again, I'm also known to throw the letter M on the end of the word "who" in certain scenarios, often with the one-two punch of not ending a sentence in a preposition ("with whom did you attend that bitchin' party?").
"The woman with whom I slept with last night" clearly refers to someone (the woman) whom you first took out to dinner and to the movies before boinking.
"The woman that I slept with last night" objectifies the subject and perhaps implies that she was paid for her services. Also note the double whammy of improper placement of the word "with."
Don't get me wrong. I still appreciate slang and its intentional uses (you should know the rules before you break them). When the phone rings and Ben has a mysterious conversation, I sometimes ask my question with a brief "who dat?"
