I agree with you completely.
The problem with that construct is that ALL versions of a phrase possessive for “Bob and I” sound wrong. I’ll always recast the sentence (e.g., “Bob and I have a friend that got arrested last night”).
“Bob’s and my friend got arrested last night.”
Or just leave Bob out of it altogether.
“The stapler is a key piece of office equipment. Would you mind handing it to myself? I need to utilize it.”
(When I edit things for one of my bosses, I have to systematically go through and de-key and de-utilize them.)
It’s right. But it still sounds wrong.
That makes it sound like two people got arrested.
I can forgive the occasional I/me confusion. But not the repeated misuse of “myself”, a reflexive pronoun (used where the subject and object are the same person). In my office it’s constantly misused (misutilized?) by people who, I believe, are just trying to make themselves look like they have a superb command of the language.
Ralph Wiggum: Me flunk English? That’s unpossible
If it were “Bob and my friend got arrested…” then it would sound like two people. The double possessive is important.
I still think we should leave Bob out of it entirely.
Or, if you’re going to include him, edit the sentence a bit: “This guy that Bob and myself know got arrested last night.”
Please tell me that you used myself incorrectly on purpose. Of course, nobody has bothered to post the rules on using it. But, as a basic rule, if there is no me or I in the sentence, then myself is not correct. The whole point of the word is to indicate that something is reflexive. Using myself means you are referring back to previous I or me.
I can talk to myself, but she cannot talk to myself. She talks to me.
Of course, that whole “leave out the other person” method works here, too. Would you say “This guy that myself know[s] got arrested last night?”
Unlike our friend, Bob and I were not arrested last night.
Its all about me.
Declan
“Myself” is probably the most overused word in the language. I am forever hearing people say it when they should say “me.”
“Myself” is correct only in two cases: in the reflexive, e.g. when the subject and object of the sentence are the same person (“I gave myself a haircut, boy that wasn’t a good idea.”) or for emphasis (“Goddamnit, I’ll just do it myself.”)
In every other case it’s wrong.
On review, I guess this has been explained already.
Yeah, screw Bob.
It doesn’t’ sound wrong to me, but you’re right, that doesn’t sound right to most people. I also reconstruct the sentence so I don’t have to confuse anyone. But “I’s”? Never. I’d sooner die.
I used to work with a guy who would respond to a phone call where he was asked for by name with, “This is he…”
He was committing 2 language sins at once, avoiding first person self-reference AND using the passive voice to do it. “Speaking…” is much easier.
A former coworker always used the phrase “yous guys.” One day she had to use the possessive, referring to our cars . . . and sure enough, it came out “yous guys’s cars.” :eek:
What is worse than a grammar Nazi? A style Nazi.
Do you seriously think there is a rule against ever using the passive? Why do you think the passive exists?
There is nothing wrong with saying “This is he…” in such circumstances. If he carried on the entire conversation using only the passive voice, and referring to himself only in the third person, then he would risk the person he was talking to finding him boring or weird, but he still would not have broken any grammatical rules.
Very funny. 
You’ll take “This is she” from me when you pry it from my cold dead vocal cords.
“It was I” and “It was Bob and I” will remain in my vocabulary.
Waaah waaah waaah. Passive voice smacks of effete snobbery and/or governmental bureaucrat-ese.
Bob’s and my friend got arrested last night.
I think ‘got’ is overused in colloquial speech.