Friday, July 03, 2009

Warning 101

3 comments:

Alear said...

"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."

-- Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, 1776

Anonymous said...

Alear,
Here's Scott Ott reading the Declaration.
http://www.scottott.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48:the-declaration-of-independence-read-by-scott-ott&catid=24:audio-video&Itemid=29
—DougM

Alear said...

Thanks for the link, DougM. That was very well read by Mr Ott, a humorist by trade, even if we may disagree on the number of syllables in 'transient' (tho he nailed 'consanguinity').

I wonder if the Hanky crowd would let this stand:

"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

As a former editor, I'd change amongst and endeavoured, can't have that Brit spelling. Remove the commas after us, frontiers, and also warfare, and put commas after Savages and sexes. I'd circle 'conditions' and ask WTF. Otherwise, stet.

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