Jeff,
I read your "grammar tips" and immediately forwarded it to a couple of English teachers I know. Even if you didn't write it, thanks for passing it on! (I did credit you as the source, just like Richard did.) I just hope they haven't already seen it before.

By the way, I was at Marist back when you were at Woodward. I seem to recall we routinely whipped you guys at just about every sport. Did you play any team sports back then?

Gump, You couldn't be talking football. I remembered it a little differently and took a few minutes to check it out. Sure enough, Marist was the Regional Champ in 1979 following a thirty year drought. I couldn’t find results on Georgia Military Academy before it became Woodward but some of that huge gap in Marist’s record can be probably be filled in by Woodward’s Regional Championships in 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, etc. Maybe Marist was the team that beat us the year I graduated in 1970 when we went 13-1 and won the State Championship. If so, y'all were probably so happy to beat such a powerhouse that you remember it as a great season.

We made it to the state playoffs in '72, my senior year, but lost to Westminster. I also played soccer, and I was hoping that maybe you were on the Woodward team that we played. Woodward probably did beat us--our soccer team wasn't much good back then. But I remember that we had Woodward's number in football, at least during the years when I was on the team. (I was second-string, so it wasn't because of my presence that we won.) We also used to be rivals with St. Pius. Of course we always mis-pronounced "Pius" to sound like a kitty-cat, as boys will do.

I confirmed that Woodward did indeed win the state championship in '70, but I also show that we beat Woodward 7-0 that year in the regular season. Of course, we all tend to remember the part that favors us, so I remembered the win and not the rest. You remembered the state championship, as well you should.

Anyway, it was a good excuse to get out the old yearbooks and reminisce.

I take it Marist is Catholic and Woodward is Baptist? Notre Dame has a lot of those Irish who play football: Magursky, Lobotomiski, dumkirkiski, and polanski.

Marist is Catholic-run, but primarily college prep, not religious. As far as I can tell, Woodward is not affiliated with any denomination. It started out as a military academy, as did Marist. When I went to Marist, we wore Air Force ROTC uniforms every day, and it was male-only. Two years after I graduated, Marist dropped the military part and allowed girls to attend. (Big improvement, as far as the girls, but I was disappointed they dropped the ROTC program.) I was not Catholic, and about half the student body is not Catholic, so don't think of it as a Catholic parochial school. It's college prep all the way.

I really did get some of it from a class so it's not all mine. I do not know who should get the original credit.

No I'm not a government employee, heaven forbid! Besides, all the governments are run by Republicans now. Who would hire me?

I, too, am waiting for the controversy. If Bas didn't provoke people, half the blog would disappear.

By the way, I think all the Mexicans who are here illegally should just be granted citizenship ASAP. That way they would not be illegal anymore. Problem solved!

You caught Jeff writin down also a mistook!!

I never noticed eny mistooks in his writin thar!

Looked fine tuh me.

Nonstandard English -- Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when, in fact, it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or (very) casual writing [to put it politely].

Its usage has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless, resulting in the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir– prefix and –less suffix in a single term causing redundancy.

How can one be less unmindful, or un-unmindful?

Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Why am I up at 1:00 when I have to be at work tomorrow? Woodward, Class of '70.