Thursday, October 06, 2005

Guilty as Charged

Exquisite.



Of course, if we are being REALLY pedantic, the FBI would not have sent the defendant an invoice. They would have issued a purchase order.

Hat Tip: Language Log




5 comments:

The Pedant-General said...

Hmmm... this is interesting.

Your case is possibly a trifle thread-bare here.

More correctly, I suspect that our man ought to be saying "If they wanted a dog in order to sniff for explosives...", as it is a specific purpose rather than merely a qualifier, but that would have opened up the possibility of a split infinitive in the first frame, thereby spoiling the timing element of the comic effect...

;-)

Akaky said...

Or he could have said, "a dog that sniffs for explosives," thereby removing the insinuation that the dog is some sort of death seeking thrill junkie and not a responsible agent of the law.

dearieme said...

PGiO: nah, one doesn't need "in order". Just "to sniff for" suffices.. Or what about the old army style: you know - Balls, pong-ping, officers for the use of?

Devil's Kitchen said...

Why do I think that the defendant is definitely going to be hanged...?

DK

Akaky said...

Because he is giltridden all over his face and deserves hanging, with some nice drawing by Al Hirschfeld indicative of his early style and some quartering as well.