Pajiba

I have been waiting forever for a big-ass cinematic treatment of Thermopylae but I'm wary. Sure, it looks good, but so did The Cell and most current video games.

Maybe someone who's read the Miller GN can let me know if his treatment is all "guts and glory," or if there is any real hope of seeing the incredibly unusual Spartan culture portrayed, warts and all (and man, they had them some big ones).

I can't wait--but I'm wary. I can't help wanting this one to be more than a stupendously great popcorn-muncher. I'm probably asking too much--again.

Ending sentences with a preposition is not a real grammatical error:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/nonerrors.html#preposition

One of my pet peeves...

Yes, thank you Eep. I, too, have been fighting the insistance of snooty people to apply Latin rules to English grammer. Latin is a dead language for a reason people: it was difficult, confusing, and had dumb rules! Get over it :)

My first thoughts on watching the 300 trailer is that it looks kind of like Troy....on acid. Let's hope its a better movie than that ode to mediocrity.

I love historical epics when they're done properly, so I too am hoping they give a comprehensive look at Spartan culture. I wouldn't count on it though. After watching the trailer a couple of times, it looks like its going for a more sensational feel. I mean, I really don't think the Spartans fought topless. The militant aspects seemed to be there though.

I meant to type something about the casting of Gerard Butler, too, but my brain shorted out when I saw him in greaves.

Bwah! The movie looks like a weird hybrid of Troy and LOTR to me. I'll probably check it out, though. Any time I get to see Gerard half-naked, during which I hope is most of the film, it's a good day.

Also, I have a question. I'm not a linguist by any means, but did Spartans speak with accents similar to Scots?

Well "snooty", I'm sorry you feel that way. It makes me sad to know that the most intellectual of us believe our language must adhere to these rules simply because Latin has been deemed superior. Why should the English language have to suffer an inferiority complex?

In Latin, it's grammatically impossible to end a sentence with a preposition, and somewhere along the line, someone decided that it would be neat if our language were the same way. So they made it grammatically incorrect for our language to do so, even though there really isn't anything wrong with it and it flows with the natural cadences of our speech.

While "snooty" is correct that we won't be taken seriously in formal writing if we don't follow these rules, that doesn't inherently make them right. Society has been spoon fed this stuff for generations; ALL of the acedemics of today, and those before them, have had to follow these rules or they were penalized.

Of course, in "snooty"'s small world, we would only ever write, speak, and think according to the rules of Latin. Why not just cut out the middle man, "snooty", and petition the government to make the national language Latin. Don't be such a hater "snooty". Oh, you know what, I do believe you just got pwn3d!!!111one.

By the way, I don't have anything against Latin really (it IS a large part of my internet handle) I just enjoy making fun of the dead. (Seriously Swahili, maybe you would have survived a bit longer if you called yourself something more awesome).

As an academic who sometimes teaches grammar in Canada (where our English sits somewhere between US conventions and British), I'd like to weigh in; as far as I can tell and from what my colleagues says, the "no ending with a prep" rule is indeed loosening up, along with the "no split infinitive" rule. Usage eventually dictates in these matters; grammar rules in English which were completely verbotin 50 years back are now offically sanctioned in today's guidelines. IMO those two rules are in that disconcerting limbo between right and wrong--they are both and they are neither.

I still go by the old rules when I'm writing my own (formal) stuff, but I don't grade it as an error anymore in non-English major student work unless it has resulted in an awkward or super-colloquial-sounding sentence--there are way way way worse issues going on these days, and I have to prioritize because I only got so much red ink in my little pen.

That said, we're all missing the larger point here; that freaking twelve-year-old writes better than many first-year college students, minus her "with...with" repetition gaff and the disputed "end prep" bit. From where I sit, it actually makes me optimistic.

"Usage eventually dictates in these matters"

Which is why it's so devastating that Dubya says "nookyooler".