# Smiles and frowns, more or less **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 16, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smiles-and-frowns-more-or-less/224798 "2004-01-16T17:29:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smiles-and-frowns-more-or-less/224798/1 "2004-01-16T17:29:14Z")
Less muscles? **Less** muscles? I never thought I’d see the day when Cecil would use this sort of fractured grammer. ---
**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smiles-and-frowns-more-or-less/224798/2 "2004-01-16T17:45:37Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Less muscles? **Less** muscles? I never thought I’d see the day when Cecil would use this sort of fractured grammar. [Link to column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040116.html) It wasn’t Cecil who used **less** instead of **fewer** ; rather, the reader who asked the question used that wording. When replying, Cecil wrote: > [@](#): > > Supposedly it takes **fewer** muscles to smile than to frown; ergo, you should smile. > (bolding mine) Then the webmaster who posted the link on the front page perpetuated the questioner’s phrasing, perhaps to lure grammar pedants into clicking on the link in a futile attempt to catch one of the rare Cecil errors, which all get blamed on lousy copyediting anyway. ---
**Author:** ![khitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@khitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/khitch)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smiles-and-frowns-more-or-less/224798/3 "2004-01-16T18:18:32Z")
My favorite variation on this is something like: “It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but none at all to sit there with a stupid look on your face.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smiles-and-frowns-more-or-less/224798/4 "2004-01-16T19:09:42Z")
> [@amore ac studio](#): > > [Link to column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040116.html) > > It wasn’t Cecil who used **less** instead of **fewer** ; rather, the reader who asked the question used that wording. When replying, Cecil wrote: > > Then the webmaster who posted the link on the front page perpetuated the questioner’s phrasing, perhaps to lure grammar pedants into clicking on the link in a futile attempt to catch one of the rare Cecil errors, which all get blamed on lousy copyediting anyway. I didn’t realize that the question was a quote from the submitter. I assumed it was a summation (created by Cecil or a staff person) of the body of the query. I’m not really a grammer nazi, but \*fewer and less \* is a pet peeve with me, along with _momentarily_ (in place of “in a moment”). ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smiles-and-frowns-more-or-less/224798/5 "2004-01-16T20:38:17Z")
I assumed this was the subject line of the email the person sent. Anyway, shouldn’t be blame li’l Ed? He’s the editor, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smiles-and-frowns-more-or-less/224798/6 "2004-01-18T20:20:19Z")
> [@khitch](#): > > My favorite variation on this is something like: “It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but none at all to sit there with a stupid look on your face.” 😃 My favorite variation is this: “Remember, it takes 42 muscles to frown and only 4 to pull the trigger of a decent sniper rifle.” - Michael Hohensee ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smiles-and-frowns-more-or-less/224798/7 "2004-01-18T20:49:29Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Less muscles? **Less** muscles? I never thought I’d see the day when Cecil would use this sort of fractured grammer. Gaudere’s Law strikes again! 😃