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Radha Nichole Smith's avatar

Stephen Blackford. I like your short essay. I have no idea if it’s accurate; but I found it entertaining and I didn’t notice the non-word “shined” at all.

“Let’s make all verbs weak.” Wonder which slavering, drooling tech-bro stumbled on that notion and believed he had found the holy grail of existence. Light shown down upon his balding head and he heard a choir of unseen voices singing “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow.” Parsifal the tech bro.

See? Our lives could be worse, Stephen.

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Stephen Blackford's avatar

Thanks for reading and I'm pleased you found it entertaining and, sadly, it's all true. Except the feral children chasing around people who use AI or chatgpt and can't be bothered to use their human gifts of writing. That's just a fervent prayer of mine. Maybe even a reality TV show one day. Who knows? We sure all need the entertainment and distractions. Not sure about the non-word "shined"? Please do enlighten me should you wish! Thanks for reading.

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Radha Nichole Smith's avatar

“Shined” replaced “shown” or “shone” in the American lexicon when weak verbs became evidently the only allowable verbs in American and editors and writers chose to never again to use strong declensions for words, thus “shined.” “The sun shined through the thinning clouds.”

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Stephen Blackford's avatar

Aha! I'd use "The sun shone..." just purely because it sounds sweeter and correct to my ears!

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Radha Nichole Smith's avatar

I couldn’t agree more.

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

Steven thanks for showing up. I really enjoy reading your articles, especially ones like this. As long as you continue to show up, I will continue to read.

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Stephen Blackford's avatar

Nice one Charlie, I appreciate that, your kind words and indeed your support. Thanks.

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