An expatriate is someone living in a country other than the country of his or her citizenship. This is a list of people who have *renounced* their citizenship.
Metropolis--even the unfinished versions that have been available before now--contains some of the most amazing and fantastical scenes ever captured on film. Johnny Cat, you've done yourself a disservice by not seeing it, especially if you consider yourself a film lover.
Hedy Lamarr, the glamorous Hollywood movie star of the 1940s, also held a patent on a "frequency-hopping spread-spectrum invention" (I have no idea what that means; I just copied & pasted it) that somehow made radio-controlled US torpedoes more difficult for enemies to jam.
Gilbert Sorrentino's novel Mulligan Stew contained, in the edition I read about fifteen years ago, a preface consisting entirely of twenty-some rejection letters he'd gotten for that very book. It was pretty brilliant, considering the weird (and difficult) technique of the book itself.
Good to know, Ashley; thanks! I volunteer at the Humane Society, and while I hate to imagine this situation arising, I'd hate it even more if it came up and I didn't know what to do.
@Tom: This is just wild speculation on my part, but it seems just barely plausible that aliens might not be intimately familiar with the works of Epicurus. Just saying.
brad, I'm sure that's true, but I don't think it would calm me down much if I found myself on the back of a monster shark that had just taken a bite out of my surfboard.
Language does evolve, yes, but an effective speaker (or writer) needs to be aware of the effect of his/her words on the audience. If someone says they're going to "aks you a question," we all know what they mean, of course. But:
(a) It draws attention away from what the person is saying and onto how he or she is saying it. This isn't always a bad thing; it can be used for emphasis or comic effect, but it can also be a distraction that impedes communication. Granted, it's a minor impediment, but if one's speech is peppered with them it can add up to a situation in which you remember how the person speaks more than what the person says.
(b) More importantly, there's a stigma to saying "aks" that can make the listener assume (perhaps unconsciously) that the speaker is uneducated or not terribly bright. In casual, social situations this is no big deal: Your friends know you already, and something like this won't change their opinion of you. In other settings, though, it can be a killer. I think we can all agree that saying "aks" during a job interview, or on a first date, is a bad tactical move. And I'd certainly never hire a lawyer who said "aks" in the courtroom.
In other words: Grammar-Nazis are mistaken to assert that the rules are black and white, but asserting that there are no rules is just as misguided. Language is a tool, and making the most effective use of it requires a thorough understanding of how it works in all different contexts.
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr#Frequency-hopping_spread-spectrum_invention
Google patent link: http://www.google.com/patents?id=R4BYAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false
(a) It draws attention away from what the person is saying and onto how he or she is saying it. This isn't always a bad thing; it can be used for emphasis or comic effect, but it can also be a distraction that impedes communication. Granted, it's a minor impediment, but if one's speech is peppered with them it can add up to a situation in which you remember how the person speaks more than what the person says.
(b) More importantly, there's a stigma to saying "aks" that can make the listener assume (perhaps unconsciously) that the speaker is uneducated or not terribly bright. In casual, social situations this is no big deal: Your friends know you already, and something like this won't change their opinion of you. In other settings, though, it can be a killer. I think we can all agree that saying "aks" during a job interview, or on a first date, is a bad tactical move. And I'd certainly never hire a lawyer who said "aks" in the courtroom.
In other words: Grammar-Nazis are mistaken to assert that the rules are black and white, but asserting that there are no rules is just as misguided. Language is a tool, and making the most effective use of it requires a thorough understanding of how it works in all different contexts.