>>>>>>... or too much of an A-hole?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090325_mo_detained.6f8a23c1.html
>>>>>
>>>>>To Terry: it took me a whole minute and the whole first paragraph to understand that "Officer delays family racing to see dying mom" does not mean "officer caused family races to be delayed so he could see his dying mom", but rather "Officer delays a family which was racing to see their dying mom".
>>>>
>>>>Like I've said before, when taking the slip road (off ramp) from a motorway (freeway, turn-pike) to enter the Services (food, gas, toilet, rip-off), there's always a sign: "End of Motorway Regulations". For years I read this as "You must obey the regulations for whne you come to the end of the motorway" (eg slow down and stuff), rater than "End of the regulations you must obey whilst on the motorway".
>>>>
>>>>Now if that headline had included "from": "Officer delays family from racing to see dying mom" it would have been unambiguous (monoguous?)
>>>
>>>A street sign in a neighborhood I used to live in:
>>>
>>>DEAF CHILDREN
>>>DRIVE CAREFULLY
>>
>>POLICE STOP.
>>
>>This is an example where ambiguity is avoided by punctuation. A noun in the vocative has a comma:
>>
>>"Friends, come in for your supper" vs "Friends come in for your supper"
>
>Reminds me of the book by Lynne Truss - Eats shoots and leaves. There is a picture of a Panda on the cover.
>
>Eats shoots and leaves.
>Eats shoots, and leaves.
>Eats, shoots, and leaves.

Do you really think that I haven't already devoured that book?! :-) She's my heroin and (despite her looks) I want her to have my babies :-)

There is an antithesis to that book: "Eats shites and leaves" which says to hell with punctuation.