Geoffrey Layton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
“According to a friend of Summers’s, Harvard had wanted . . . ” 
 

The New Yorker has always been kind of the God of Grammar, Usage and Mechanics.  Are they slipping, or am I?
 
~~~~~
 
The New Yorker could certainly use some help with "Harvard had wanted".
 
"There is nothing the word 'had' can do for a past tense verb that the verb can't do for itself." (Omar Khayyam) 


      

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