[Ads-l] one of the only?

[Joel Berson]

Though a little better.

Joel

      From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 8:27 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] one of the only?
   
Sounds fine to me, though "few" would work also.

JL

On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 8:16 PM, Flourish Klink <flourish.klink at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I agree. Shockingly low standards from the Grey Lady. And I am a
> millennial!
>
> On Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 5:09 PM George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > From a recent obituary
> > ​in the NYTimes:
> > ​
> > Toots Thielemans, one of the only musicians to have a successful career
> as
> > a jazz harmonica player, died on Monday in Brussels. He was 94.
> >
> > ​
> > I would write "​
> > the only musician to have a successful career as a jazz harmonica player
> > ​" or
> > "​
> > on
> > ​e of ​
> > the
> > ​few ​
> > musician
> > ​s​
> > to have a successful career as a jazz harmonica player
> > ​"
> >  --
> > ​ ​
> > no doubt because I am an old codger.​
> > ​
> > I believe that the first statement is true, the second the sort of
> waffling
> > that is common in the press, leading to statements like "the Battle of
> > Gettysburg is widely regarded as an important event in the Civil War",
> but
> > that's another matter.​
> >
> > ​GAT
> >
> > ​
> > George A. Thompson
> > The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> > Univ. Pr., 1998.
> >
> > But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
> > your lowly tomb. . . .
> >
> > L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", *Poems*.  Boston, 1827, p. 112
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"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