The Grammar Police have now returned from unpaid leave.
I posted this elsewhere, but some of my loyal readers might be interested to read it:
: : "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are coming to the
: : Show-Me Center."
: And this sentence is problematic ... how?
Okay. Let's go back a few steps:
1) I think we'll all agree that "Daniel Amos is coming to the Show-Me Center" is correct. "Daniel Amos" is one entity -- a band -- even if it has multiple members. Great.
2) A bit trickier now: "The 77s is coming to the Show-Me Center." This gets arguable, because while "The 77s" is one unit, one could also argue that the members of the band could each be called "a 77," and thus multiple 77s will be playing, requiring the plural. However, since The 77s are known and playing as a band, not individual members, I'd go with "The 77s is..." construction.
3) About as tricky as #2: "A Man and His Two Beautiful Wives is coming to the Show-Me Center." To clarify: "A Man and His Two Beautiful Wives" is the name of the band. If four single Jersey guys picked the name because they thought it was cool, let's say, the "man" and "two wives" are obviously not referring to band members (particularly since there are four of them). Thus, it must be a singular entity.
It gets a bit more iffy if A Man and His Two Beautiful Wives is made up of a man and his two beautiful wives. Still, I'd argue that it's one unit in this case -- being the name of a band -- and would get the singular.
4) "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is coming to the Show-Me Center." If "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" were a one-man accordion show -- let's say the guy bought the name from Petty, etc., for $500,000 -- it would be a singular entity, right? Because it'd be the name of the band, right? And there's no way a one-person band could be plural, right?
Well, "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" is the name of a band. As far as I know, every album put out by Petty and every tour he's gone on has been under the guise of "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers." (I'm not much of a Petty fan, so I could be wrong.) "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" is as much of a singular band name as "Daniel Amos," I believe.
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
