The Chainlink

R.I.P. One Less Car

What can one say? As one door closes, another one opens I suppose. While Bates Crates has been open for a couple of years now, I guess I just wanted to pay homage to One Less Car and thank Cole for bringing/providing what he has to Chicago(and Chicagoland area). I hope we have made you feel at home here. I will miss One Less Car Shirts, stickers and patches.

http://www.1lesscar.com/

http://batescrates.com/

Views: 404

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 6, 2012 at 10:29am

Maybe they can start a new site called One Fewer Car.

They could be both trendy AND grammatically correct. 

Permalink Reply by David on February 6, 2012 at 10:48am

Thou! Why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard than thou hast.

IAW, good enough for the bard...



James BlackHeron said:

Maybe they can start a new site called One Fewer Car.

They could be both trendy AND grammatically correct. 

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on February 6, 2012 at 11:19am

I will also miss one less car stickers and stickers. It's a great logo and moto of merchandise. 

Cole is a good guy, was one of our first advertisers on The Chainlink, and I wish him luck consolidating and focusing on Bates Crate. 

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 6, 2012 at 12:34pm

Hair can be shortened or even cut in half (sub-dividable) and therefore less is teh correcto.  Half a hair is still a hair.

Cut a car in half and you get 2 chunks of scrap metal.  It's no longer a car.  forthwith, in teh ingliss,  fewer is the correct adverb for comparing the quantity of cars.

David said:

Thou! Why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard than thou hast.

IAW, good enough for the bard...



James BlackHeron said:

Maybe they can start a new site called One Fewer Car.

They could be both trendy AND grammatically correct. 

Permalink Reply by David on February 6, 2012 at 1:35pm

Well now I'm fascinated.  Originally I assumed you were repeating the pseudo-rule about less and fewer being restricted to non-countable and countable nouns.  But now you seem to have a completely different rule in mind that I've never heard of before.  What is your criteria for the two?

Since half an item is still an item, can I trust that you have no problem with  the "10 items or less" signs?  If the waiter miscounted the beer, do you suggest that "three beers less" would be the correct way to point out the error?  Either you have a grammatical rule for this that I've never encountered (one that apparently special-cases mass nouns used in countable contexts), or you're just making this up on the fly and haven't really thought it through. 


James BlackHeron said:

Hair can be shortened or even cut in half (sub-dividable) and therefore less is teh correcto.  Half a hair is still a hair.

Cut a car in half and you get 2 chunks of scrap metal.  It's no longer a car.  forthwith, in teh ingliss,  fewer is the correct adverb for comparing the quantity of cars.

David said:

Thou! Why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard than thou hast.

IAW, good enough for the bard...



James BlackHeron said:

Maybe they can start a new site called One Fewer Car.

They could be both trendy AND grammatically correct. 

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 6, 2012 at 1:47pm

The "countable" rule is a rule of thumb.  It is simply a good way to remember it but it has flaws.  It's actually too simplified to be a hard and fast rule. 

The rule as I was taught (and I'm not looking it up and simply stating it from memory) is that if something is a descrete unit and is not divisible then one uses More/Fewer and if it is something that is divisible into parts that are not discrete then it is More/Less. 

You can have more/less water -but more/fewer buckets of water.

You can have more/less mustard -but more/fewer bottles of mustard. 

Saying something is "countable" is a rule of thumb because just about anything can be counted.  You can count buckets of water, or ounces of water within it.   But if you are talking about water in general (or hair as old Bill the writer hath mentioned) then it is more/less. 

If I ever changed my name I would change it to Lester.   So when I was in a hurry I could get into the checkout lane with the sign that said, "10 items or Les."

Permalink Reply by David on February 6, 2012 at 2:19pm

Yes, but (we're waaaay into non-bike territory here), that explanation has nothing to do with what you said, which was about mass nouns being used in countable contexts.

In this case, take water.  If you've worked in a restaurant, you've heard that one needs seven waters on table 12.  In this case, we're in a countable context (counting discrete items), and most who insist on the new-style fewer/less distinction would insist that if the waiter brought one water too many, it would be one water fewer that was needed, not one water less.

You, however, are stating that this isn't true.  Or, at least, you seem to be, although I'm beginning to suspect you simply don't really understand the rule you think you're following.  

Using the article "a" is a surefire sign of a countable context.  Shakespeare wasn't talking about hair in general, he was talking about "a" hair.  A discrete unit, if you will.  Or are you now suggesting that the indefinite article may be used in non-countable contexts?  That would be a strange.

James BlackHeron said:

The "countable" rule is a rule of thumb.  It is simply a good way to remember it but it has flaws.  It's actually too simplified to be a hard and fast rule. 

The rule as I was taught (and I'm not looking it up and simply stating it from memory) is that if something is a descrete unit and is not divisible then one uses More/Fewer and if it is something that is divisible into parts that are not discrete then it is More/Less. 

You can have more/less water -but more/fewer buckets of water.

You can have more/less mustard -but more/fewer bottles of mustard. 

Saying something is "countable" is a rule of thumb because just about anything can be counted.  You can count buckets of water, or ounces of water within it.   But if you are talking about water in general (or hair as old Bill the writer hath mentioned) then it is more/less. 

If I ever changed my name I would change it to Lester.   So when I was in a hurry I could get into the checkout lane with the sign that said, "10 items or Les."

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 6, 2012 at 2:40pm

Glasses of water are More/Fewer.

Water, in this context, signifies a "glass of water."  The manager frowns on watering the customers as they tend to complain unless they are on fire.

RSS

Groups

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service