Five times lwss

[David A. Daniel]

It means that if the city manager makes 100, she makes 20. 100 divided by 5.
If she had said "the city manager makes 5 times as much as I do", there
would be no confusion, I think. I of course have no idea if that is in fact
the situation with her salary, if that is what she meant to say, if she
knows what she is talking about, or anything else about the factualness of
the statement. But that is what she said.
DAD
____________________________________________
I only got one rule and that's never bet money you don't have on a dog race
with your ex-girlfriend who happens to be a stripper.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Bill Palmer
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 10:33 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Five times lwss


In a letter to the editor of the Raleigh News & Observer today, a writer
complains that her salary is "five times less" than that of the city
manager.  So how does one perform that calculation?

Is this more arithmetic than language?

Bill Palmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org