You’re just jealous that she got it cheaper than the brand-name photographic memories! 
So a restaurant that serves Native American food in Asheville is no more unique than one that serves Martian brains simmered in jellied gravity distortion?
I, and my American Heritage (a real asskicker of a dictionary), disagree. While “unique” can be binary, it don’t gotta be.
Daniel
less unique. Damn you, Gaudere!
“Unique” is binary. Period. Class dismissed.
(you’re one of those 8[sup]th[/sup] graders whose papers I marked all those years ago, aren’t you? 
)
New example:
Suppose you want to buy a new airplane (~$200K and up (mostly up) thanks to the lawyers and the FAA) and you live in Colorado (or WY, or MT) and you look up your local Piper dealer.
You will find them proudly proclaiming here:
Gotta love it!
Most of this thread hasn’t been about the OP at all. “Typing like and uneducated fool” is actually just a typo. Irritating as it is to read sometimes, nobody would ever actually say this. The other examples in this thread, are, unfortunately, things people say (or write) on purpose, all the time, and not excusable as (whoops, almost typed “like”) a typo such as in the thread title.
On to my non-typographic pet peeves -
If he had done x, I would have done y. --CORRECT
If he would have done x, I would have done y. --CRINGE-INDUCING
And, more a stylistic thing than grammar: when newscasters say “Back in 1996…” Bad style; they should just say “In 1996…” The way they say it makes me think 1996 is supposed to be in the distant, misty past… way back before everything that matters … some very old, senile and insiginificant folk might remember wa-a-a-a-y back in 1996…
I was whooshed.
:smack:
I knew it right after I hit “submit”
Sorry.
Uh, teach, before that bell rings, care to pull out a dictionary? I suspect it’ll explain why the ghosts of all those hapless 8th graders are haunting you.
From Merriam-Webster’s usage note for unique (note that this isn’t the original dictionary I cited):
When I check out the American Heritage Dictionary Online, I find that they consider the meaning of “unusual” to be informal. Must be a different edition than the one I had in college.
Nonetheless, given that your poor 8th-grade students had a respected dictionary meaning to fall back on, it was incorrect to mark “very unique” incorrect on their papers.
Now you can dismiss the class.
Daniel
That should be “lizard”, and “apostrophe”.
Dear snot-nosed-brat-in-the-back-of-the-class DanielWithrow :
This issue is the old descriptive vs. prescriptive dictionary debate.
Descriptive dictionaries are hellspawn.
It is because of them that Illiterates can now say “Irregardless is too a word - it’s in the dictionary” (even though they would misspell both “too” and “it’s”).
If enough illiterates misuse a word, the appeasers who publish descriptive “dictionaries” will list the usage as correct.
Turn away from the Dark Side!
(and the little bastards did NOT have access to such a dictionary - hellspawn was not allowed in classrooms on those days)
No worries, Happyheathen – I had superstitious ancestor-worshipping fogeys teaching English back in my junior high classes, who also didn’t recognize what dictionaries were for, and who also wouldn’t admit they were wrong in the face of evidence.
Good luck with that Grammar From On High thing!
Daniel
Rock on!
(just don’t be too surprised when people look at you funny)
Correct apostrophe use is not as simple as previously asserted.
http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
I for one was surprised to learn that, although you use an apostrophe for personal possession (eg “Sue’s hat”), you don’t do so for impersonal possession (eg “Its hat is grey”). I’ve been doing that wrong for over 20 years!
You’ve also been doing something else wrong. “e.g.,” always requires specific punctuation: a period after each letter and a comma after the final period (unless you end a sentence with the abbreviation, in which case it should be preceded by a comma). It’s short for “exempli gratia,” if I remember my Latin; this phrase translates roughly as “for example.” Place the comma accordingly.
Daniel
just to show HH that I can be a grammar nazi too.
You’re talking to a person who has already mastered the correct usage of “E.g.” (as opposed to “i.e.”) Cut the guy some slack on the punctuation!
jes’ kiddin’; keep up the good work!
One that’s been bothering me lately: “Mexican (or Chinese or whatever) Restaurant.”
The word “restaurant” implies that they serve food–so “Food Restaurant” is redundant.
but not all that unique
That one kills me. I almost had a coronary when one of my professors handed out a syllabus using “loose” for “lose.” Where’s that head blowing up smilie?
I’m not sure if I understand this one.
What’s wrong with saying ‘Mexican Restaurant’ or ‘Chinese Restaurant’?
The ethnic name just describes what type of food they serve.
I think it was a typo: Dr. Rieux probably meant to say he/she (I can use it in that instance!) finds it annoying when people say “Mexican Food Restaurant”.
Maybe.
I must admit I’ve never heard that before in my life.
I’ve found it helpful to remember the “its” thing by putting it in the same category as other words similar to it: yours, his, hers etc. None of those have apostrophes, but since we have no similar words that do have apostrophes, we don’t make the mistake.
Noooo! 
Use “he or she”. It’s so much nicer.
**DanielWithrow:
**Pfft. Fowler’s Modern English Usage tells us that it is perfectly okay to omit the full stops in common abbreviations.
Would you bother writing “U.S.A.”?
Your point about placing a comma after “eg” is well made, however.