Plurality

#1 · July 2, 1999, 9:06 am

Posted by: tz8cy5 <tz8cy5@...>

The manager of a large city zoo was drafting a letter to order a pair of
animals. He sat at his computer and typed the following sentence: "I would
like to place an order for two mongooses, to be delivered at your earliest
convenience."

He stared at the screen, focusing on that odd word mongooses. Then he deleted
the word and added another, so that the sentence now read: "I would like to
place an order for two mongeese, to be delivered at your earliest
convenience."

Again he stared at the screen, this time focusing on the new word, which
seemed just as odd as the original one. Finally, he deleted the whole sentence
and started all over. "Everyone knows no full-stocked zoo should be without a
mongoose," he typed. "Please send us two of them."