"as much as"

[Wilson Gray]

Like Charlie, I'm confused. Any interpretation - almost as much; about
as much; almost as little - makes it seem as though the iPhone is some
kind of loss-leader, when Apple is really charging all that the market
will bear, to the extent that some commentators say that computers are
now just a sideline, soon to be reduced only to the iMac, like the
iPhone, also a winner in its niche - I have glaucoma and the glaucome
newsletter *strongly* recommends the iMac for *anyone* with vision
problems, as does my wife's cataracts newsletter - for Apple, Inc. No
need to continue the no-win battle, trying to overcome Microsoft's
overwhelming lead in the business sector. As it is, Linux is carrying
on the battle against Windows, costing Apple "not one ray-id
(formerly-)coppa cint," as we say in Marshall, and perhaps elsewhere,
in East Texas.

-Wilson

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 4:46 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      "as much as"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The rotating news snippets that show on the Yahoo home page include this:
>
> "Surprisingly, the Apple iPhone retails for almost as much as it costs to make."
>
> Doesn't it mean to say "almost as LITTLE"?  Or perhaps "as much" is construed to mean 'the same amount' in either direction?
>
> --Charlie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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