???

2009-01-19

As you can see from the title, I have a further question (actually, a test to confirm a hypothesis) about the way Blogspot posts posts with non-alphanumeric titles. Last week's post had the URL http://justinnhli.com/posts/2009/01/blog-post_12.html, the "12" seemingly from the date. If I am correct, this post should have the URL http://justinnhli.com/posts/2009/01/blog-post_19.html. Let's see if I'm right.

As for last week's real question, the answer may be surprising. There were two ungrammatic sentences in the list, and they are:

• I'm doing good. (Obviously)
• I'm doing great. (wah?)

I was surprised by the second one too, but according to Wiktionary, great is only an adjective and therefore cannot describe the "doing". It doesn't work in this case as an injection either, which means it's just plain ungrammatical. Of course, being grammatical doesn't mean everything, as is shown by:

• I'm doing best.

This is funny, actually, because "better" and "best" are both superlatives, which inherently compare one thing with another. "I'm doing better" compares my current feelings with my past, but "I'm doing best" - which would implicitly mean I'm feeling the best I have in my life - just comes across weird.

But that's English for you. If you need further evidence that grammar isn't everything, consider the following sentence:

• Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

This week's question: Why do men like women with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and large breasts? No, it's not because they have more fun...