Right - a person who doesn’t eat dairy products COULD just be lactose-intolerant, but he/she could also be a vegan.
It wouldn’t be silly for a waitress or a gracious hostess to ask the question, just to make sure you aren’t served something you can’t or won’t eat.
I would assume someone who says they can’t eat dairy products is lactose intolerant. Otherwise, they need to go back to English class.
Here’s two:
A journalism/drama teacher teaching a sophomore high school English class quoted from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”:
“U-tay Bru-tay.”
No amount of arguing, even from members of the Latin class, could dissuade her. She was sure that the Bard of Avon intended it to rhyme. Since, ya know, he was a poet.
The second one would be from the late 70’s, long before chip-equipped automotive keys became common-place. When her boyfriend’s car would turn over, but not catch and start, a young woman asked her BF, “Are you sure you have the right key?”
Sounds like someone does at any rate.
I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean.
Meaning the insistence on can as being suitable only for statements of pure capability is at best a stylistic issue but is not an actual feature of english.
Well, cool. We’re in agreement.
A lactose intolerant person is quite obviously physically capable of consuming dairy products. However, it’s normal to say one “cannot” do something when what is really meant is that something is not allowed or, as another example, medical problems will arise as a result.
It’s not normal to use “can’t” to mean that one has chosen not to do something for purely personal reasons.
Never heard of sympathy pains? 
I also love the, “I know that can not be done.” folks &
the, “I bet I can.” folks in the other aisle…
Sure it is. I can’t afford a lot of things that I actually could afford if I wanted to.
I had a student teacher in the fifth grade who insisted, even in the face of Latin, that A.D., as in “the year AD 2014,” stood for “after death.” Trying to explain that this meant that year 1 would be the year we currently refer to as “AD 33” didn’t help either. And she would not let me go to the library to look it up. I’m still mad about that.
I also think it’s a little ridiculous that the Jewish kid in class was the one who knew this.
“Afford” doesn’t just mean that you’re capable of paying for something. It can also mean that doing what you “can’t afford” to do would be to your disadvantage.
I’ll be more specific. It’s not normal to say one can’t consume something when it’s actually purely a personal choice. In fact, I would consider it a little dishonest and self-important to act as if such personal choices are actually necessities.
My Jewish friend after asking about the ingredients in a soup: “Oh, I can’t have that one; let’s go with the veggie noodle.”
Similarly, lots of people on temporary, optional (often ill-advised IMO) diets “can’t have” lots of foods.
My autistic, overly literal cousin also objects to this very normal use, so at least you’re not alone.
A polite request: for any further discussion of the meaning and usage of can’t, please start a new thread in GQ.
Or the other possibility is food allergy. Quite often people who are allergic to the casein in milk have other food allergies. Chicken eggs, soy, fish, shellfish, nuts, peanut etc are on the top of the list.
Exactly my point. When I say I can’t have dairy no one ever says “It has shellfish and nuts in it, is that ok?”. And I don’t think waitresses are assuming I am a vegan when I order food. I still am convinced it is because the eggs are next to the cheese in the refrigerated case at the store that people think they are both dairy products. But by that logic Pillsbury biscuits and orange juice are also dairy products. :rolleyes:
Damn those topics that hijack threads but are a little too pointless for a whole thread.
Does anyone else want a new thread on this tangent?
I’d start a new topic, but frankly, I could care less.
[d&r]
That seems to be the problem many of us have.
My wife and I were having dinner with a couple we had just met through an activity group. They were about our age, had children of about the age of ours and seemed agreeable enough. During dinner the subject of space exploration came up. The wife let us know that she was absolutely opposed to building an outpost on the moon because the extra of the base would throw the moon out of orbit and send it hurtling towards the earth causing death and destruction. She was perfectly serious.
I had know idea what to talk about during the rest of the meal. When someone view of reality is that messed up what is a safe subject?