"all but" = all of; a mere"

[Mark Mandel]

For me too. It looks to me as if arnold is assuming an ironic use, or
inferring it, possibly from the 'only' sense of "but" (with or without
negation). Arnold?

m a m

On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 12:32 PM, Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
> Odd that arnold finds this reading of "all but there" days to suggest
>  that it was less than expected. For me, the expectation is just the
>  opposite; not only that it was three full days but that it should
>  have taken less. What are we missing here?
>
>  dInIs

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