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What's wrong with this sentence:

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  • 18-05-2010 9:55am
    #1
    Gregor Samsa
    Registered Users Posts: 8,908 ✭✭✭


    I know it's only a word out of place, but it caught my eye. From an article in today's Indo about the famine memorial:
    As the minds of all present inevitably travelled back the 170 years or so to the darkest days of the country's history, perhaps the mood was best captured in a prayer read by Seamus O'Connell of the Humanist Association.

    "As we remember the greatest calamity ever to befall this country, we may ponder on the mismanagement and neglect, as much as on the failure of the potato crop."

    http://www.independent.ie/national-news/british-fail-to-attend-famine-ceremony-2182551.html


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    #2
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    phutyle wrote: »
    I know it's only a word out of place
    A prayer read by a humanist? Hmm..

    As for the quotation, I haven't had my first cup of tea yet, so I reserve the right to be completely wrong, but I'd have said he was only short a clarifying comma.


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    #3
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    I'd imagine that's just a case of careless journalism.

    How did a Humanist representative manage to get that gig? Normally the church would be all over that kind of thing.

    Although, I suppose God was busy while 1.6 million of his flock starved to death. :pac:


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    #4
    Zombrex
    Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    I give up? Whats wrong with it? :p


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    #5
    iUseVi
    Registered Users Posts: 1,435 ✭✭✭iUseVi


    Is it "prayer"? If it is, do I get a smiley face on my homework?


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    #6
    Funkfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,602 ✭✭✭Funkfield


    Is it using the word "on" after "ponder"?


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    #7
    Gregor Samsa
    Registered Users Posts: 8,908 ✭✭✭Gregor Samsa


    Dades wrote: »
    I'd imagine that's just a case of careless journalism.

    Possibly, but I think it might be a wider issue with some people (like the journalist in question) not being able to get their head around the idea that you can commemorate (or indeed celebrate) without religion. The words spoken by Seamus O'Connell were apt and poignant - the article even commends them for capturing the mood of the event - but the journalist couldn't get past the idea that such a comment must be a prayer - or at the very least, couldn't find another word to more accurately describe them.


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    #8
    The Mad Hatter
    Registered Users Posts: 4,718 ✭✭✭The Mad Hatter


    What's wrong with this sentence:

    It ends with a colon instead of a question mark.

    Oh, wait...

    :p

    Yes, it does seem odd to report that the head of the humanist association is reading a prayer. From what you've posted there, it doesn't read like a prayer either.


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    #9
    Funkfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,602 ✭✭✭Funkfield


    They forgot to put an "E" on the end of potato!


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    #10
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Funkfield wrote: »
    They forgot to put an "E" on the end of potato!
    Ah, that's what I like about A+A -- some nice snappy 20-year old satire :)


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    #11
    hiorta
    Closed Accounts Posts: 457 ✭✭hiorta


    ""As the minds of all present inevitably travelled back the 170 years or so ""

    To do so, they would have to have been present initially.
    But there are schools of thought that think so.


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    #12
    Funkfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,602 ✭✭✭Funkfield


    robindch wrote: »
    Ah, that's what I like about A+A -- some nice snappy 20-year old satire :)

    I'm slow to get moving, but when I do.....ZING!

    :cool:


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    #13
    PeterIanStaker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭PeterIanStaker


    Dades wrote: »
    I'd imagine that's just a case of careless journalism.

    Its the Indo, they're masters of careless journalism


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