>>>>The English language is sometimes embiggened by just this sort of trial and incremenentation.
>>>
>>>While I've come to expect this kind of behavior from Canadians and Texans, it's clearly infecting the minds of the young and impressionable...well, he is from Minnesota, though; it might not be entirely your fault.
>>
>>Hey, I resemble that remark.
>
>I had the good sense to escape almost 25 years ago. Living where it was legal >to drive around in a pickup truck with a loaded shotgun sitting next to an >open beer on the front seat made me a touch nervous.

Yeesh, just checked in for the first time since I made that comment - that reference to embiggen is pretty obscure... in one episode, Lisa Simpson is assigned to do a report on Jebediah Springfield, the founder of Springfield. What follows is a reenactment of the exploits of Jebediah, at the end of which Lisa is overwhelmed. Normally precise, she then uncharacteristically resorts to making up a word (as opposed to Homer, who does it all the time). So now, through the magic of Fox tv, whenever someone mangles the language, the first thing that pops into my head is "Jebediah Springfield embiggened Springfield" (by which she meant made it a better, nobler place of course).
Yeesh, can't wait to see what watching Futurama's going to do to me...

So, all this to say it was not my intention whatsoever to disparage or say anything negative about the great people of Minnesota, past or present, real or imaginary, or anyone else, for that matter, not even, god forbid, Dubya.

Peace