: )

[conuly]

There's this one restaurant on Staten Island that runs commercials saying, at the end, "There's Nothing Like It On Staten Island!"

This, of course, drives my mother absolutely wild because, of course, there *is* something like it on Staten Island, and that's the restaurant itself.

I've got a new one for her. Reading A Wizard of Mars (although I've been a lot less enthused with that series since A Wizard Alone... and really, the first three books continue to be the best) they have the line "Mars is the most earthlike planet in our solar system." Except it's not. Earth, pretty much by definition, is the most earthlike planet in our solar system. Mars is second-best.

I mean, duh.

A word to the wise. None of you, ever, engage in a conversation with my mother, or anybody else in my family. Especially over Scrabble (which you'll lose if it's against my mother) or Boggle (ditto). I love my family, but really - it's an affliction.

Comments

[erisiansaint]

I'll agree that the Staten Island one is poorly worded, but the Mars comparison is not. Earth is the thing that Mars is being compared to, so Earth is not earthlike, it is the Earth. However, you could say that other planets are earthlike, because they show signs of being like the Earth. Mars is the planet most earthlike because it is not the Earth, it is a different planet similar to the Earth. And the Earth is not earth-like. It is.

However, on the Staten Island one, 'else' would have been a useful word to put in there.

[conuly]

I see your reasoning, but I still think it would've been better to say something like "Mars is more like earth than the other planets in the solar system" where the "remaining" would be implied.