33 thoughts on “Less than 2000 to go!”

    2. There’s a good point. I’m sure that PCC would not accept direct donations to defray his expenses but maybe a charitable organization that he’d offer as a proxy?

      1. No, I’m not poor and I won’t ask readers to contribute anything. Occasionally I’ll suggest charities, but I would recommend that readers join the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which costs only $40 a year and really DOES STUFF to keep the First Amendment strong. You also get a swell fat paper newspaper every month, chock full of good stuff.

        1. If you join for a lifetime they will send you a little pin you can wear and people will ask you, what’s that.

        2. I also appear to remember you were sympathetic to ‘medecins sans frontieres’?

          1. I was going to make the same point – phrased as a question – for those of us living outside the jurisdiction of the USA.

          3. I hope that is not true, but if it were would it not be because of the area they mostly work? then the workers would have targets on their back.

        3. I believe you have said as much (about not accepting payments yourself) but based on the fact that FFRF tags their posts as having 23,000 members, surely a few people from this site, at least the US based folks, could join to swell their ranks as well. I know that I joined because of your writing about them.

  4. “FEWER than 2000 to go!”

    Are those pitchforks?

    Why are you pointing them in my general direction?

      1. Hrrmph. I subscribed to WEIT *just now* and also then happened to notice the misplaced “less” right after. Bummer.

        LOL. Go “fewer”. Obviously.

        🙂

          1. Tut tut.

            I notice our local supermarket (in Auckland) has its quick service aisle labelled ’12 items or fewer’. Obviously their signwriter reads grammar blogs.

            cr

  6. Long-time reader here. I did subscribe now. Of course, I had no choice in this matter since I lack free will. But may I offer a post-fact rationalization?: I did it because I believe PCC(E) deserves the bragging rights that come with having 50,000 registered readers.

  7. Shouldn’t that be “Fewer than 2000 to go!”?

    Yes, I was an English* major and I am a grammar nerd too.

    *And Linguistics.

    1. Check this out: from an article by Steven Pinker:

      you may have “less gravel”, but most writers agree that you can only have “fewer pebbles”, not “less pebbles”. This is a reasonable distinction, but purists have extended it with a vengeance. The sign over supermarket express checkout lanes, “Ten Items or Less”, is a grammatical error, they say, and as a result of their carping upscale supermarkets have replaced the signs with “Ten Items or Fewer”. By this logic, off licences should refuse to sell beer to customers who are “fewer than 21 years old” and law-abiding motorists should drive at “fewer than 70 miles an hour”. And once you master this distinction, well, that’s one fewer thing for you to worry about.

      10 ‘grammar rules’ it’s OK to break (sometimes)

      2. ‘By this logic, off licences should refuse to sell beer to customers who are “fewer than 21 years old” and law-abiding motorists should drive at “fewer than 70 miles an hour”.’

        Umm, no. Because ’21 years’ is a measurement of time (and the years are not individual items) so it takes ‘less’. And in fact ’21’ is a specific point on your personal timescale, which is continuous.

        Similarly 70mph is a point on the ‘speed’ scale, which is continuous. (Between 69.9 mph and 70.1 mph in fact). Each individual mile an hour is not a distinct entity (and it makes no sense to try and conceive it as an identity).

        The supermarket items, on the other hand, are distinct. You can’t have 11.5 items.

        So it all makes sense.

        See the ref PCC linked to –
        https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/less-or-fewer

        cr

    1. I’m set up for 1 email per thread posted by PCC (and substitutes), but I believe there is an option for “digests” of “all threads for today.” When on the (global) clock that counter ticks, I don’t know.

  9. After faithfully reading nearly every say since you started writing here, I have decided to subscribe… Now if my memory fails completely I will still have a daily email link to click to read my favorite blog website.

  10. Your daily words of wisdom and wit are exceedingly important to thousands of us, plus all the photographs – take care of yourself-
    with great gratitude and salutes!

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