A second dream team: Mucor, Oreb, and Pike

Mark Millman · 13 Aug 2008, 18:37 · from 2008-August.txt.gz

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From: markjmillman at gmail.com (Mark Millman)
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:37:32 -0400
Subject: (urth) A second dream team: Mucor, Oreb, and Pike
In-Reply-To: <1bf4dd40808131107p1a89eb4cl1cb858b1163f84 at mail.gmail.com>
References: <1bf4dd40808131107p1a89eb4cl1cb858b1163f84 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <c873c2920808131137k15a87190o615acad336892fbd at mail.gmail.com>

Dear Mr. Tallman,

I actually don't mean to pick on you personally; my frustration with
the issue just happened to overflow while I was reading your post.  I
apologize if I upset you.

However, you did write, "I think any other inhumi is also out," which
could just as easily and more correctly have been rendered with "are"
without losing gender-neutrality.  Other instances of singular inhumi
aren't (as) easy to make both gender-neutral and plural without
changing your meaning, so for them, your explanation satisfies me.
And you get points, on the gripping hand, for writing of Quetzal, "his
fear of exposure as an inhumu," later in your post.

Because, y'know, I do seem to be in a picky mood today.

Best,

Mark Millman

On Wednesday 13 August 2008, Dave Tallman wrote:

> All right, I said "an inhumi" a couple of
> times in there. I meant it as a gender-
> neutral shortcut for "an inhumu or an
> inhuma." People often use the plural for
> gender-neutrality in their writing these
> days. If you let a quibble like that spoil
> your entire trust of my reading, I'm sorry.

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