Monday, June 18, 2007

No, I Didn't Know That

From Today's Notes Column:
Did you know? ... The Nationals have won four consecutive road series, including the three-game series against the Orioles.
I know Canada's an inferior, moose-sucking country, but the games should still count, eh?

posted by Chris Needham at 11:02 PM

4 Comments:

  • It is somewhere in the rules *** can't place my hands on it right now. Series in Canada do not count.
    If the Nats had unloaded Nook while there, I would have considered it a winning series.
    Oops. Wrong thread.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6/19/2007 8:09 AM  

  • Well...you know, that statement is true as written. The Nationals have indeed won four consecutive road series: the Reds, the Cards, the Twins and the Orioles. Just because they lost the Blue Jays series, that does not negate the fact that they have won four consecutive road series, the same way that Brandon Watson failing to get a hit last night does not negate the fact that he has gotten a hit in 43 straight games. He has done that, hasn't he, whereas you and I and everyone else has not, right? Now if that quote had said "The Nationals have won their most recent four road series" or "The Nationals have currently won four consecutive road series" or something like that, well then I'd be right with you in jumping on the snarkmobile. But you know, it didn't, did it?

    By Blogger An Briosca Mor, at 6/19/2007 9:30 AM  

  • Excellent point, sort of!

    It's the word have that would throw the logicians among us off. "Have" implies that it's ongoing, right? Unless it's meant for the past tense, in which case you're completely right.

    Hmmm...

    I think we need more lit majors around these parts. We can deconstruct and parse this for textual meaning and symbolism! That'll be fun! I'll start an open thread now! ;)

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 6/19/2007 9:35 AM  

  • Hey, I'm about as far from being a lit major as anyone could get: Civil Engineering. But that's the thing about the English language. There are so many words and so many different meanings and nuances for every word that it's amazing that anyone can say anything that has a single understandable meaning. It all depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is, doesn't it?

    By Blogger An Briosca Mor, at 6/19/2007 10:22 AM  

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