In message <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] writes >John Clogg <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> Ah, but "persist" is a verb... just not a transitive one! > >What's next, the passive voice? > >"My data are persisted in an Image data base." > >Hmmm. Sounds like the beginning of a new Dr. Seuss best-seller. > >Walter Nope. The next is collective nouns, whereby 'data' has been promoted from the mere plural of 'datum'. So the above seems odder for its use of 'are' than for the passive. Mind you, the 'My data' sentence appears at first to parse in a similar way to the different, but uncontroversial "the view has persisted in some circles that 'data' is still only correct as a plural". Chomp on that, Noam! -- Roy Brown 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be Kelmscott Ltd useful, or believe to be beautiful' William Morris