{"id":404,"date":"2008-11-01T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2008-11-01T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/the-g1-is-not-even-close-people\/"},"modified":"2011-05-31T19:29:07","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T01:29:07","slug":"the-g1-is-not-even-close-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/11\/the-g1-is-not-even-close-people\/","title":{"rendered":"“(… the G1 is NOT even close people)”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw this in a comment below a blog post.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nA comma is missing.<\/p>\n

Explanation:<\/strong>
\nThe comment appeared almost immediately below the bottom of a blog post<\/a> about how Blackberry can beat iPhone.<\/p>\n

The commenter wrote “The only known true competition to the iPhone (yes thats right, the G1 is NOT even close people) is the BB Storm.”<\/p>\n

Ignore the other problems, and focus on the end of the parenthetical remark.<\/p>\n

The comment writer was telling his readers that the T-Mobile G1 cellphone should not be compared to the AT&T iPhone because the G1 is “NOT even close” to the iPhone in terms of features.<\/p>\n

The writer was referring to his readers as “people”.<\/p>\n

If you say the parenthetical remark aloud in the spirit of what the writer intended, then you will notice that you pause between the word “close” and the word “people”.<\/p>\n

This pause should be represented by a comma, which gives us the solution.<\/p>\n

In contrast, if you speak the parenthetical remark exactly as it was written, then the sense of the remark becomes twisted to mean that “close people” are not the G1 cellphone, which makes no sense.<\/p>\n

I believe that this type of omission of a comma is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit a comma than to write or type one.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong>
\n“(… the G1 is NOT even close, people)”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw this in a comment below a blog post. Problem: A comma is missing. Explanation: The comment appeared almost immediately below the bottom of a blog post about how Blackberry can beat iPhone. 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