Screw you guys. I'm outta here.

Silver King

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After careful consideration, and having spent more time on AW than is good for me (or anyone else), and after realizing that my contributions here are not appreciated, and considering that my wife has left me recently for my best friend, and my yard needs mowed, and I may never publish again in this lifetime, I would like to bid all of you a fond adieu.

Ha, ha, just kidding.

I just wanted to try a faux flounce here to see how it feels, and all it's done is left me empty and feeling that I've misled people. If I were really going to leave, I might not say anything, or perhaps just a few words to say goodbye; then I'd be gone for good.

I understand sometimes a pseudo-flounce may help to stoke our egos and get folks to pine for our return, but it's not fair to those responding who genuinely feel we're leaving AW, when in fact we're just kidding around and have no intentions of leaving.

In that regard, I'd appreciate if we stopped with the faking of flounces in Office Party. There are other ways we can draw attention to ourselves without crying wolf.

I feel strongly enough about this issue that all future fake flounces will either be closed or deleted.

As always, I'm open to suggestions, so if you don't agree, please let me know how you feel in this thread or via PM.

Thank you.
 

KTC

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Oh poop. I wanted to bug you and say something like, "And don't come back, you crazy fish kissin' fool!" But you went and make it all serious like. I agree. No more floundering. Oops. Flouncing.
 

SPMiller

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When I've parted ways with online communities in the past, I've done it quietly. Someday that's what will happen with AW, and nobody will even notice my absence.

But let's take this thread in a more interesting direction. Do you really say "needs mowed" in real life? I'm curious, because I keep seeing that construction in text and I never hear it in person. Where I live, we say "needs mowing" or "needs to be mowed".
 

Haggis

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But let's take this thread in a more interesting direction. Do you really say "needs mowed" in real life? I'm curious, because I keep seeing that construction in text and I never hear it in person. Where I live, we say "needs mowing" or "needs to be mowed".

If we're gonna niggle about grammar, I'm out of here.

Oh. Wait.
 

Fenika

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Oh my. I feared the stresses of Mod work and real life had really gotten to you. Don't do that to me.
 

Devil Ledbetter

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I'm hardly niggling. I'm genuinely interested in a linguistic sense. I'd like to know if it's in common usage.

P.S. -- No fake flouncing!
Oh, well if you're genuinely interested, then he (no doubt inadvertently) dropped the "to be" in the phrase "my lawn needs to be mowed."

I drop both of these words all the time. It's practically a disability. I didn't even notice SK had done so until you took pains to point it out.
 

Haggis

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I'm hardly niggling. I'm genuinely interested in a linguistic sense. I'd like to know if it's in common usage.

P.S. -- No fake flouncing!

Uh, just poking some fun here, SP. :poke:

But, since you asked, yeah, I've heard it. Don't like it much, but it's getting to be quite common. It's kind of like someone saying they graduated college, rather than that they graduated from college.

But...whatever....

Want a beer?
 

JoNightshade

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But... but... but I never got to flounce!!!

Dangit, apparently I have missed my golden opportunity.

You guys suck. I'm outta here.
 

SPMiller

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Uh, just poking some fun here, SP. :poke:

But, since you asked, yeah, I've heard it. Don't like it much, but it's getting to be quite common. It's kind of like someone saying they graduated college, rather than that they graduated from college.

But...whatever....
Well if that's the way you're going to be, I'm leaving.

Want a beer?
Wait... maybe I can stick around a while longer.
 

Rolling Thunder

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I'm hardly niggling. I'm genuinely interested in a linguistic sense. I'd like to know if it's in common usage.

P.S. -- No fake flouncing!

It seemed okay to me, so I googled:

http://www.focusresearch.com/gw/?cat=11

This Question Needs Answered

Monday, March 13th, 2000
the lawn needs mowed / the lawn needs mowing / the lawn needs to be mowed
I’m assuming there is a name for this construction, but I have been unable to find one.
The leftmost version sounds very odd to me, although since noticing its use by others, I’ve caught myself using it once or twice.
I asked Larry Wall about this on 2000-10-13 after his talk at the Atlanta Linux Showcase, hoping that with his background in linguistics he could give me the name for this grammatical error (or unusual grammatical form). He couldn’t think of a name for it.
There was some discussion on the newsgroup alt.english.usage about this, which can be found by searching deja for “needs mowed”.
I have The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1996 edition, ISBN 0-19-869126-2). The entry for “need” on page 516 reads:
3 need + pa.pple. The type these clippers need mended is a worrying newcomer in semi-educated speech in BrE and AmE. Examples: I walked round the cottage to see what needed done–C. Burns, 1989 (UK); When you see one [sc. a dog] drag its butt on the ground like that, it needs wormed, Otis–T. McGuane, 1989 (US). The standard alternatives are shown in 2.
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 (At the heading “REGIONAL NOTE” here):
When need is used as the main verb, it can be followed by a present participle, as in The car needs washing, or by to be plus a past participle, as in The car needs to be washed. However, in some areas of the United States, especially western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, many speakers omit to be and use just the past participle form, as in The car needs washed. This use of need with past participles is slightly more common in the British Isles, being particularly prevalent in Scotland.

Of course, I'm in PA...so that explains why it seems okay by me. :)
 

Cranky

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Hmmm. Board ate my post!

Oh well. Bottom line: (and at the risk of being all serious and stuff) I agree with Dino. I am not fond of the faux flounce threads, and have given up clicking on most of them. I never know if someone's being serious or not, so if I were to post in one of them, going, "Oh, please, don't take off. Take a break, blah, blah, blah." and then they say, "Ha ha, just kidding!" I feel foolish. I don't like feeling foolish. So I skip them now.

*sigh*

A pet peeve, what can I say? :)
 

SPMiller

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Oh well. Bottom line: (and at the risk of being all serious and stuff) I agree with Dino. I am not fond of the faux flounce threads, and have given up clicking on most of them. I never know if someone's being serious or not, so if I were to post in one of them, going, "Oh, please, don't take off. Take a break, blah, blah, blah." and then they say, "Ha ha, just kidding!" I feel foolish. I don't like feeling foolish. So I skip them now.
Then how'd you get here? ;)

Yeah, I know, you can safely assume mods aren't really going to flounce.

Or can you?
 

Rolling Thunder

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This thread is dangerously close to becoming a Round Table thread.
 

rhymegirl

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I feel strongly enough about this issue that all future fake flounces will either be closed or deleted.

Oh no!!!!

Rats. There goes my fabulous fake flounce of the future.

"I've decided to move to another planet because I just can't take it on earth anymore. See ya later, ya loosers."
 

Cranky

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Then how'd you get here? ;)

Yeah, I know, you can safely assume mods aren't really going to flounce.

Or can you?

Because I knew SK wouldn't faux flounce. Well, I guess he did (LOL!) but for illustrative purposes.

I would miss him if he left! I would want to throw myself at his feet and hang on so that he couldn't leave. :D
 

Silver King

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I'm hardly niggling. I'm genuinely interested in a linguistic sense. I'd like to know if it's in common usage.

P.S. -- No fake flouncing!
I worked hard on that sentence. Sixty-six words with only one period. I was so proud. :)

My oldest boy stopped by this evening. He usually cuts the grass for me, when I ask him to.

I said, "The lawn needs mowed."

He understood what I meant.
 
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