Excuse me.
Oh, hi Sam.
It's time.
Not this morning, I have a headache.
No, you don't.
I'm sleepy.
It's time, mistress. The vicious cats are out and the rabbits and...
Sam, we're going to regret this. There's some really good reason why a walk this morning is a bad idea.
Walk? Did you mention a walk? Nothing could have been further from my mind. The leash is over there.
Walks on summer mornings are great for many reasons, not the least of them being the quiet. Little bits of mist rise from the yards, rabbits scurry about and, apart from joggers, Sam and I have the walk to ourselves.
Today school started. This means mornings full of squeaky brakes, kids lined up in driveways and nary a bunny or bloodthirsty, life-threatening or dangerous cat in sight until Saturday morning.
Public Service Announcement
(aka I've been grading papers again)
It's = it is
its = ownership
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog-time.
3 comments:
I am terrible at that 'its' thing.
I am terrible at that 'its' thing.
Why? Because the specific instance here doesn't fit the logical pattern. Imagine a child learning English... The possessive of "dog" is "dog's." The possessive of "cat" is "cat's." The possessive of "Olivia" is "Olivia's." The lightbulb goes off! A rule is discovered! The possessive of "X" is "X's!"
But, gosh darn it, we already have a contraction for "it is" that looks just like what our new rule would produce. Confusion reigns. So we are stuck with the nondescript "its" as an unfortunate exception to the rule.
I suggest we bring back "'tis" as the only valid contraction of "it is." Then we could allow "it's" as a nice, fit-the-rule possessive.
'Tis fun to talk that way, too...
Sam seems pretty cool. Any dog who wants to protect the neighborhood from vicious cats is all right by me.
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