FB: "If only constituents could get as fast of action!" [NT]

[Wilson Gray]

On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 12:34 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> CNN reported a day or so ago that the current hunt for Flt. 370 "isn't in
> as deep of water" as before.
>

"As fast of action"?! "As deep of water"?!

I must be yearing into the "aged and mellow" stage of life. Once upon a
time, this kind of "stupid" change in syntactico-semantic structure would
have just pissed me off. Now, it strikes me as really interesting and
vaguely and pleasantly reminiscent of the type,

"Is that all the faster that you can run?" = "Is that the fastest that you
can run?"

that used to fall trippingly from my tongue, during my lost youth.

Youneverknow.

--
-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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