Y'know, I don't have pet peeves. I think a person with a lot of them is simply prone to bitch and complain. I try to keep them to a minimum. After all there's a shit load more important things in the world to bitch about than some little (fucking) defect somebody else has.

Fine. Having said that, there is one thing in everyday life that seems to be on the rise over the last ten or so years that genuinely pisses me off. It ain't a driving faux pas (I never was a road rager). It's not clogged sinuses (that's what headphones and Led Zeppelin are for). It's the following mental (fucking) defect many people have. It seems more prevalent in technical circles but this example can be easily extrapolated into every other venture imaginable.

Question:

Does the following sentence end with a dangling preposition?

"That is behavior I simply cannot deal with."

Answer:

No. The correct sentence is

"That is behavior with which I simply cannot deal. "

I pause. I wait. I count to ten. Then twenty. I used a totally non-technical example for everyone not involved in technical matters. The technical version goes like this

Question:

So the desired time to send the first command is "T zero" and the actual time between rising edges of the commands is measured by the frequency counter?

Answer"

No. The T zero time is the time in memory for the command to be sent. The frequency counter measures the time period between pulses.

I pause. I wait. I count to twenty.

Reply

"So. . . what you're saying is. . .T zero is the desired time to send the first command." Long pause. "Right? And the frequency counter measures the time period between rising edges of the commands. . .right?"

"Yes. That's right."

This is about the fifth time in the last five minutes. This shit ain't easy and it doesn't help to answer every question with "No" to show how smart you are only to have to

FUCKING!

back track and ultimately answer "Yes."

Then, back in the conversation, I stifle the nearly overwhelming urge . . .never mind. Anyway. . .

Does that sentence above end with a dangling preposition?

Yes. The answer is "Yes." "Yes" is the answer. Not "No." But "Yes."

Say it with me, now. . .

YESSSSSSS!

It's not so hard a thing to do. Really. Just think about the fucking question before your reptilian reflexes kick in and you knee jerk out an answer of "No" and re-

FUCKING!

state what I just asked.

Would you like to ask me a simple yes or no question?

or didn't you know -shit isn't a dangling proposition.

Well there is certainly a lot of it being dangled around here.

Jack

And yet you were fully able to comprehend the sentence. Why is that so hard to deal with?

NickD:

And yet you were fully able to comprehend the sentence. Why is that so hard to deal with?

Because, like I said, this shit ain't easy. When I ask a question and am told, "No. That's not right," I switch back into "open sponge, ready to learn" mode. Then some jackass tries to teach me something I apparently already know. Makes learning new shit much more difficult than it needs to be.

Alternate question:

Why is it so hard for some people to just shut up and listen to the

FUCKING!

question?

Hey! Yoda speak I can handle.

There's a very specific term for Yoda speak but it escapes me right now. But if you know it, you can reply with the right word and I'll say, "No. The right word is "some-shit-you-just-told-me."

And I'll feel real smart for having set you straight.

odd - something's missing. oh, i know what it is...the next installment!

"Alternate question:

Why is it so hard for some people to just shut up and listen to the

FUCKING!

question?"

Alternate Answer: Because some believe they have the answer before the question is asked.

You're welcome.

You have no idea how loud I typed that previous reply.

I know. I know. I haven't abandoned it. I swear I'm working on it. And spleen venting is so short and requires far less time and work. I will see this through to the end (sooner rather than later).

Excuses: House hunting. Work. Other writing. Stuff.

But they're all still blah, blah excuses.

When the addition of an adverb or preposition changes the meaning, the combination is considered a phrasal verb. Since no dealing is being done, "deal with" is the verb and can be used to end the sentence. For the Churchill example, "put up with" is the phrasal verb.

True for positive and negative going transitions.

That is a cool site!

You're one of "them" aren't you.

You know the joke.