pronouns gone mad

[Laurence Horn]

On May 7, 2014, at 3:44 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

>
> On May 7, 2014, at 3:21 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>> Makes me wonder just whose claws the cat was using to "knead[] your
>> thighs".  And whether the cat was in a (perhaps intermediate)
>> transsexual state.
>>
>> Joel
>
> Or alternatively whether it might have been a Schrödinger's kitten, both male and female under
> the box is opened and its sex is determined.
>
> LH


I meant, of course, "until", not "under".  Those cat boxes can be tricky locales, especially when your cat has poor aim.

>
>>
>> At 5/7/2014 01:06 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>> You've clearly never had a cat with multiple personality disorder.  Ableist!
>>>
>>> LH
>>>
>>>
>>> On May 7, 2014, at 11:01 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>
>>>> God forbid your gendered pronouns make you into an unwitting sexist.
>>>>
>>>> Arden Moore of Yahoo! today:
>>>>
>>>> "If you need a sign it is time to trim your cat's nails, nothing is clearer
>>>> than when he perches on your lap, purrs and starts kneading your thighs
>>>> with her front paws. But this is also a sign of affection. Experts say that
>>>> this action beckons your adult cat back to a safe, welcoming memory when
>>>> she was nuzzling his mother for milk as a newborn kitten. He is being
>>>> affectionate and a bit nostalgic. "
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Back in the eighties I had one or two freshman who did this - out of
>>>> thousands - before being corrected.
>>>>
>>>> Now it's a  bylined Web correspondent.
>>>>
>>>> JL
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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