Mea maxima culpa.
I am one of those pedants who restricts usage of 'decimate' to the
termination of approximately 10% of the population in question.
Scott Catledge

I remember the jokes about grammarians beginning three score years ago.
One had two grammarians wading across a stream when a huge crocodile
half-swallowed one, who yelled "Save yourself: I'm done for."  The other
replied,
"Oh, please do not end your last sentence with a preposition."  Churchill
would have said, "That is a bit of arrant nonsense up with which I will not
put." 

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ATEG automatic digest system
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 12:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ATEG Digest - 27 Jan 2008 to 29 Jan 2008 (#2008-20)

There is 1 message totalling 34 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Tasmanian Devils

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Date:    Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:35:52 -0600
From:    DD Farms <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Tasmanian Devils

>DD: As further proof of the lack of  the study of English  word 
>meanings consider;
>QUOTE
>Researchers are working toward an understanding of a unique 
>transmissible and rapidly spreading cancer that threatens the very 
>existence of Tasmanian devils. The disease has decimated the devil 
>population by nearly 90 percent in certain geographical areas of 
>Tasmania, and officials project that within twenty years the entire 
>species could become extinct.
>END QUOTE
I wonder if they mean nine percent. {i.e. Ninety percent of ten 
percent.} Nota bene; The authors of that also apparently slept 
through Xeno and probably flunked the Calculus. Are proof readers 
also a dying breed?
For citation and an interesting story of a dying breed, like unto 
grammarians and Latin Teachers(?) see;
>Tasmanian Devils' Existence Threatened By Rapidly Spreading Cancer
>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080128173735.htm
   

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End of ATEG Digest - 27 Jan 2008 to 29 Jan 2008 (#2008-20)
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