16 Comments
User's avatar
Michele Mandrioli's avatar

Lay, laid, laid (transitive)

Lie, lay, lain (intransitive)

I just finished reading the fantastic book, “Not My Type” by E. Jean Carroll and noticed that she used the word “lain” correctly in it. She also used lots and lots of witty allusions - literary, classical, historical, cinematic, etc. Any non-MAGAt reader would love this book. (Most of the humor in it is beyond their comprehension.) I think it would make a very entertaining (and dramatically riveting) movie - I hope someone buys the rights to it.

Ned Pointsman's avatar

Are you listening, Bob Zimmerman?

Glenn Alan Cheney's avatar

Lie lady lie? I'll cut him some poetic license on that.

Humanitarians Unite!'s avatar

We are so blessed to have you with us! Thank you!

Richard Waddell's avatar

Good point! That makes US all recipients of the blessing of Mr. Keillor's excellent

health care. GK changed the world forever, thankfully!

Dan Bammes's avatar

Anybody who's listened to the Beatles knows this: "The doctor came in, stinking of gin, and proceeded to lie on the table."

Chuck Braithwaite's avatar

I can usually tell which Beatles songs were written by Paul based on grammar. Although I don’t hold it against the others if they pay less attention to that aspect of English.

Glenn Alan Cheney's avatar

Well thank you for the hat-tip to the lay vs. lie problem. It's been bothering me for years. Iv'e seen language mavin John McWhorter get it wrong in the NY Times twice. I've seen it wrong in The New Yorker. I was an EMT on an ambulance crew and hated to see reports of patients found laying in the road, though I ever tried to correct my well meaning colleagues. That said, I appreciate Garrison's reflections on it, as always just a little deeper than I'd thought before.

Pal's avatar

Beautiful! That swearing part, wonderful!

Greg Mansur's avatar

I'm only 75, ha ha, true but, when I go to the hospital I too compare the professionalism of the doctors and the staff - god bless the staff - angels in my opinion, to the incompetence of government. If only, right? Thanks.

solvay peterson's avatar

Thanks to all of the witty inventions, and to the doctors who've employed them, that have kept you here and writing!

Chuck Braithwaite's avatar

I’ve been reluctant to ask my healthcare providers about their politics and fear that they may take it out of me when I lie on the table.

But I did drop an endocrinologist from the team when he told me he just got back from a “missionary” trip to Japan. I asked him if he knew how many deities were in the Shinto religion, and which one did he recommend the Japanese give up if they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Not surprisingly, he didn’t know (although given there are 8 million deities and Shintoism, there’s probably room for one more). Anyway, I moved on from him.

Cheetah's avatar

Well that was different.

Ryan Collay's avatar

Ah yes, competency…and I don’t want my doc believe in stuff that can’t be true because reality isn’t made that way…practices, evidence, improvement , professional development, the newest and the best outcomes, outcomes based treatment. We have way too much ‘snake oil’ in our culture these days, of course the literal translation of the Bible as fact kind-of is part of these issues…that lesion for illiterate sheepherders to live a better life is one thing, believing that all humans were begat by Adam and Steve, oh sorry, animals have a female somewhere who is able to build a baby person, and this requires sexes…that’s basic.

The team of people who did my wife’s surgery were the best of the best, and a team of experts in their fields. Of course the anesthesia deliverer runs the show…really.

If the folks in the Golden Dome were working on you, you would just end up with another asshole…oops, my mistake, Shoulder? Are you sure?, we do asses so well!

Richard Waddell's avatar

If Johnson Smith & Co. (remember their catalogs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Smith_Company) were around now, they would NO DOUBT be selling lots of bottles of GENUINE SNAKE OIL.