Wow, Kat — best refutation of that silly rule I've ever run into. I've known for years it came from Latin grammar, but your answer was complete and understandable. Now if we can just get people to sort out the difference between "bring" and "take" we might be getting somewhere.

On the other hand, I run into phrases all the time that make no sense because writers put things down the way they're said by most people.

One of my bugaboos is: John Doe was sentenced to five years in the penitentary Tuesday.

Which makes it either the shortest five years or longest Tuesday in history.

Changing that to: John Doe was sentenced Tuesday to five years in the penitentary. makes a lot more sense, don't you think?

Yeah, yeah — it may be pedantic, but this is what I do for a living.....

david