Interesting phrasing

[Victor Steinbok]

A comment on the cell phone outage in parts of the country today:

> When asked why the phone lines weren't working Tuesday afternoon,
> Richard Young, a Verizon spokesman simply responded: "We're in the
> middle of an earthquake right now, so it's not surprising."

Well, that's fine, except that "we"--including Verizon--were not "in the
middle of an earthquake" when the comment was made. The earthquake had
long passed by then. I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong
with the comment--in fact, it seems to be fairly typical shorthand for
the "extended event".

Take it or leave it...

VS-)

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