Let me preface my remarks about how they ruined the English language by saying I love nuns. Especially the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus who taught me in grammar school. Smart, smiling, interested in you, dedicated. Every World Series, they lugged in TVs from God-knows-where and we\u00a0watched every inning. That was when the game\u00a0was played under the sun, the way God wants it. The nuns knew how to swing\u00a0a bat … in the case of the classroom, a\u00a0yard-stick\u00a0that would crush\u00a0the knuckles of us, the many, the happy\u00a0class clowns (most everybody because most everybody was Irish). Contrary to disinformation spread by a few bitter old men, we weren’t traumatized by\u00a0the Sisters’ corporal calls to order. It was the cost of doing business, the entertainment business. Anyways, those smacks didn’t smart half as much as dear old dad’s\u00a0belt bashing one’s buttocks. \u00a0Those were the days!<\/p>\n
Now, to the point. Why do the likes of\u00a0The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal write things like: The deal was closed between he and they?<\/p>\n
Jamie Trickett would say: No, Sistah, we weren’t fighting–me and him are cousins. \u00a0Sister Mary Francis would say: He and I are cousins. Repeat after me: He and I are cousins. He and I are cousins. He and I are cousins. He and I are cousins.<\/p>\n
Richie Meelia would say: Motha, Danny\u00a0and me went to Russo’s\u00a0and got this\u00a0candy because my motha’s sick and I didn’t have any\u00a0lunch. Mother\u00a0Mary Cabrini\u00a0would say: Danny\u00a0and I went to Russo’s. Richie would say: Did you get some\u00a0Flavah-Pops, Mothah? Step, step, step and WHACK! Repeat after me: Danny\u00a0and I went to Russo’s. Danny\u00a0and I went to Russo’s. And you, Mr. Meelia, write it on the blackboard until your arm falls off. Richie thought\u00a0it was worth it and all the boys\u00a0just knew she thought it was funny.<\/p>\n
All across the country, nuns\u00a0drilled the troops: He and I, he and I, you and I, we and they were tied in the ninth, she\u00a0and you should stop fighting, we and she, we and you, you and they, they and I, she and I, your sister and we!!\u00a0I\u00a0and they!!! The nominative case was burned into the very synapses of our hypothalamus. Goodbye, accusative or objective case. Hello, Washington Post: … [it] was\u00a0between he and she. Hello, New York Times: … \u00a0the facts contradict he and they alike. Hello, bloggers\u00a0… you’re unspeakable!<\/p>\n
Half the nuns\u00a0were French Canadian and half were Irish, so they all must have hated the English. They\u00a0struck back at the oppressors by undermining their language\u00a0through a secret, subtle, clever strategy. A lousy writer is\u00a0only a pawn in the Good Sisters’ game. Don’t blame anybody but\u00a0they.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let me preface my remarks about how they ruined the English language by saying I love nuns. Especially the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus who taught me in grammar school. Smart, smiling, interested in you, dedicated. Every World Series, they lugged in TVs from God-knows-where and we\u00a0watched every inning. That was when the game\u00a0was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheap-shots"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}