At 05:24 PM 2/19/01 -0500, you wrote:

Several years ago, a popular comic assumed the persona of an Eastern
European, new to the ways of America, and had as his constant punch line
"What a country!"

The same might be said for our lovely language, where for every rule there
is an exception.  I have had the opportunity to know several people for
whom English is a second language learned as an adult, and I can only stand
in amazement at their ability to learn such a seemingly impossible language.

To paraphrase the outlaws in the old Humphrey Bogart movie "Treasure of the
Sierra Madres" (title?/sp?):

        "Grammar?  Grammar?  We don't need no sticking grammar!"

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