To celebrate my 4000th follower (!), I offer this wonderful sentence.
My student was commenting on a public-service ad about nutrition, if I recall correctly.
Can’t you picture the people who see it? “Hmm!” they say; “maybe a diet of nothing but candy and Big Gulps isn’t the greatest idea! Maybe I should….” And then: “Naaaaah. This thing is probably not true. I’d rather not think about it anyway. Where did I put that bag of gummy bears?”
Nothing against gummy bears per se, but I’d say that’s a pretty INeffective ad, and I’d say some advertising agency ought to be firing somebody or maybe looking for an account to replace the one that just fired THEM.
If she had written “rather than” instead of “before,” she might be holding out some hope for us all. But maybe she didn’t proofread. Maybe she doesn’t understand what “think twice” actually means. Maybe she didn’t even think twice.
Maybe she just allowed herself to be ignorant…
You Knew What I Meant 
March 19th, 2015 at 12:39 pm
If one is going to allow oneself to be ignorant, at least one should give the matter due consideration.
Congratulations on the very impressive follower count.
March 19th, 2015 at 1:10 pm
Thanks so much, my friend!
March 19th, 2015 at 12:40 pm
Congratulations on 4,000.
It’s encouraging to see a blog with quality content reaching such high marks.
March 19th, 2015 at 1:10 pm
Oh, thank you so much for the kind words!
March 19th, 2015 at 7:11 pm
Laughing. That is awesome – your 4000 follower. I wonder how many are not teachers…
March 19th, 2015 at 8:03 pm
You know, the amazing (and gratifying) thing is that a lot of my followers are aspiring young writers. Either I will paralyze them with fear or excite them with the powers and dangers of words. Whatever happens, I am touched that they are finding something here that speaks to them. The teachers, I KNOW I speak to!
March 19th, 2015 at 8:14 pm
That is splendid indeed that you students are interested. Maybe I will edit some of their books some day.
March 20th, 2015 at 12:14 pm
Sorry. This one’s so funny I can’t stop laughing.
Always enjoy the comments, too
“excite them with the powers and dangers of words.” A noble calling. (and despite the grim outlook, somewhere there is one that catches it….We can only hope it’s like a virus and spreads.)
Congrats and well done!
March 20th, 2015 at 1:31 pm
Thanks as ever, phil. Yes, I’m still laughing too! Ah, ignorance, that popular choice….