JumpStart by Robb Armstrong for January 08, 2015

You chose Roger over your own granddaughter?

How much is Home Depot hating this story arc?

So Roger’s great at Internet security threat assessment, but not so much at grammar. Learn the subjunctive, my man.

Most high school graduates, not to mention current middle schoolers, don’t consistently use the subjunctive. Squizzums is noting that the correct usage would have been: “if recess were longer.”

I understand and use the subjunctive. But how typical to point at someone intelligent and say “but he can’t do THAT”. I see this happen often.

At his age the only way Roger was qualified to make an assessment is from experience; just how many sites has he hacked anyway?

Fixing weak spots takes money and corporate profits don’t allow that.

There are two kinds of companies; those that realize they’ve been hacked, and those that haven’t realized it yet.

Makes me laugh. Suck it Home Depot and Target.

Good way of showing your eyes Roger.

@Gweedo – It’s legal here !!! – Murray@SquizzumsHe’s not the only one. I looked it up and I still don’t get it !.I never covered it in any English class in school or college, but a seventh grade science teacher took off a point for misuse with the explanatory note “supposition”.Simply put, use plural when imagining..From Wiki:“The English subjunctive also occurs in counterfactual dependent clauses, using a form of the verb that in the indicative would indicate a time of action prior to the one implied by the subjunctive. It is called the past subjunctive when referring counterfactually to the present, and is called the pluperfect subjunctive when referring counterfactually to the past. It occurs in that clauses following the main-clause verb “wish” (“I wish that she were here now”; “I wish that she had been here yesterday”) and in if clauses expressing a condition that does not or did not hold ( “If she were here right now, …” ) "

I would’ve found more if recess were longer.

Anyone notice that this is Gunther in a younger body?

@Charles Smith:I know what assuming makes the person who does it: intelligent. Go on, assume things, think it through what your assumptions would imply, then test your assumptions. It’s creative, it’s expanding your horizon. Don’t let curmudgeons tell you otherwise.

@Charles Smith

@Observer fo Irony“You’re making assumptions. We know what the word assume does to you and me, right?”.You assume we know.We know what people say it means, but they are being silly.Assume away.

Too late for anyone to see this, but the expression “If recess were longer” implies that it’s set in stone, so to speak, that recess is not longer. The way Roger is uttering this sentence, though, I’d say had been longer, because it fits in more smoothly with “would’ve.” BTW, I did well in English and taught it, but never delved as deeply into pluperfects and stuff as some of the rest of you have. “Were” is not necessarily plural if it’s employed as a subjunctive. You say, “If I were . . .” if you actually aren’t but are making a supposition, and there’s only one you (I hope!).