Steve,

First, if I offended you with my last post, I apologize.  Your response read
somewhat caustically.  I probably worded my post poorly, but had not meant
anything by it.

I consider myself neither a mathematician, nor an expert on english grammar.
My analogy had been meant to get across that I knew of other areas where
some "rule" with which I was familiar was not common knowledge.

WRT: "apparently, neither has anyone else"...I received a few private posts,
and had two conversations in my office about it.  I was not the only one
familiar with this rule.  Friday afternoon and Saturday on this list are not
indicative of its normal audience, and I imagine others next week will post
that they, too, were taught this rule.

WRT: "ask(ing) 100 randomly-selected people" ANYTHING about mathematics is
an exercise in futility.  I would be surprised to get one "correct"
response, since even most of the "learned" people I know may not be familiar
with this particular rule.

WRT: "exists only in the minds of a tiny fraction of the population, it may
be appropriate to question both its value and existence", brings to mind the
point of "how many people know what MPE is, even within the vast population
of persons who make their living working on computers".  I think the fact
that only a few people know about it is only indicative of its absence from
standard teaching materials (please no comments on American schools), and
that it is not considered by many to be of concern.  Ask Dan Quayle about
adding "e" to the end of words.  His spelling of potatoe was correct, as was
the "normal" spelling potato which the child already knew.

WRT: "identifi(ying) a time when that usage was the norm" would be a waste
of time since I don't believe there exists a time when the majority of a
people using a given language followed anything more than the basic rules of
its structure.  I would expect that it is only when a language is not native
that the speaker focuses on its grammatical structure with any regularity.
Even an English teacher may use slang to get across her subject material.

People not knowing the rule does not invalidate the rule.  And I know the
plural of appendix is appendices.  Of course, I also know the plural of
"you" is "yall".  The singular of "yall" is "yall".  And the plural of
"yall" is "all yall".

Rs~

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