In fact, with three or more beneficiaries (and regardless of punctuation), uniform distribution requires that the legacy be divided among them. (If you like non-US English, you might want to use the unnecessarily ornate amongst.) Bill _____
Bill Potts W <http://wfpconsulting.com/> FP Consulting Roseville, CA <http://metric1.org/> http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] _____ From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 13:02 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:45542] Re: Metric Style Question Dear Jim, John, and Jim, I agree that the over-enthusiastic placement of hyphens is probably simply naiveté on the part of the software writers. I will see if I can find some time to write to the ones I use. On the side issue of Bob, Bill, and Bubba, I once read that in legal terms this can be an important issue. It went something like this: * If the will of Grandpappy Bertram (known as Berty) read 'divide equally between Bob, Bill and Bubba' then his estate was divided so that Bob got half and Bill an Bubba got the other half to share equally between the two of them. * If the will of Grandpappy Bertram read 'divide equally between Bob, Bill, and Bubba' then his estate was divided equally between all three of them. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide. PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com <http://www.metricationmatters.com/> for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe. On 2009/08/08, at 5:02 AM, James R. Frysinger wrote: Jim, John Steele gave a good answer. English tends towards simplification of writing style over time. There was a time that "cooperative" required (!) an "unlaut" over the second "o" to show that a diphthong ("oo") was not intended. I recall when one saw "catalogue" more often than "catalog". I still use a comma before "and" and "or" in a series of equal parts ("Bob, Bill, and Bubba"). My impression is that the "double adjective hyphen" is slowly going away. The SI Brochure and NIST SP 811 demand that for metric values in symbolic form ("10 mm bolt"), even when used as adjectives. The world is still split on spelled out forms ("ten millimeter bolt" or "ten-millimeter bolt"). Jim Jim Elwell wrote: My grammar checker keeps trying to get me to hyphenate a metric unit of measure when used as an adjective (apparently seeing the number and the unit as a compound adjective). I wrote: "put all those resources into a 180 mm industrial panel-mount unit" And it suggests "put all those resources into a 180-mm industrial panel-mount unit" I thought I was quite familiar with metric style, but I am not sure about this one. Can anyone shed some light on it? Thanks! Jim -- ********************** Jim Elwell jim.elw...@qsicorp.com 801-466-8770 www.qsicorp.com -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stony Point Mountain Road Doyle, TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267 (H) 931.657.3107 (F) 931.657.3108
