Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo

Hello All,

     The clever Sam L. found this treasure and shared it earlier today.  I give you perhaps the most ridiculous grammatically correct sentence you have ever seen.  Enjoy!

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
  
     You read that correctly; your eyes are not deceiving you.  That sentence is grammatically correct in every way, shape, and form.  Allow me to explain.

A buffalo is a bison, that large and shaggy plains animal that has been hunted to near extinction and now largely lives in small, privately controlled herds.

Buffalo is a city in New York.

To buffalo means to push or bully into something, as in, "He buffaloed me into doing my homework, even though I thought it was a terrible idea."

     Now, break the sentence into its individual parts.  The first two words, "Buffalo buffalo," mean buffalo from Buffalo, or bison from the city.  The second two words are the same.  The fifth word is the verb.  So, the first half of the sentence says, "City bison that city bison bully."

     Congratulations, we just wrote the subject of the sentence.

     Moving on to the predicate, we have three words:  buffalo, Buffalo, and buffalo.  The first word is the verb.  Those city bison that have been bullied by other city bison are starting to perpetuate the hatred and insecurity.  What do they do?  They buffalo!  Finally, we need to figure out the identities of their victims.  They are more Buffalo buffalo!  The vicious cycle is complete.  City bison that other city bison bully bully yet other city bison.

     Those poor, sad Buffalo buffalo.

     Thanks Sam!

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Monday, November 10, 2014

Writing

Hello Everyone,

     Some days, I feel like this is how students treat the writing process.

That's awesome, so long as that "write" writing happens after all this.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

P.S. - That was a pun!  Punny, right?