> First, if I offended you with my last post, I apologize.

You didn't.

> Your response read
> somewhat caustically.  I probably worded my post poorly, but
> had not meant anything by it.

I don't see anything "caustic", and certainly didn't intend to convey that
feeling, but I apologize for whatever you saw that appeared to fall into
that category.

> 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.

But we aren't talking about mathematics; we're talking about an
allegedly-standard 'rule' of spoken English (or American-English) grammar.

> 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

Non sequitur. A fraction of the English-speaking population actually works
on a daily basis with computer hardware and OS administration; a fraction of
that fraction works with minicomputers in the HP3000 class; a fraction of
*that* fraction is familiar with multiple machines. But 100% of the
English-speaking population is familiar with English grammar (not all to the
same degree, of course).

> People not knowing the rule does not invalidate the rule.

I disagree; if essentially no one--a percent of percent of a percent of the
population that operates in the area covered by the "rule" and can
reasonably be expected to be familiar with the rules of that field--has ever
heard of the "rule", I have to challenge not only the validity of that
"rule", but even the existence of that "rule" as such.

> 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".

As do millions of others, including yours truly.

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