Today's Grammar Lesson, Courtesy of Our Friends in Scranton, PA

Ryan: ...so that you can communicate it to the people here, to your clients, to whomever

Michael: It's whoever, not whomever. Whomever is never actually right

Jim: Well, sometimes it's right

Creed: Michael is right, it's a made up word used to trick students

Andy: No, actually, whomever is the formal version of whoever

Oscar: Well, obviously it's a real word, but I don't know when to use it correctly

Michael: Not a native speaker

Kevin: I know what's right, but I'm not gonna say, because you're all jerks who didn't come see my band last night

Ryan: Do you really know which one's correct?

Kevin: I don't know

Pam: It's whom when it's the object of the sentence, and who when it is the subject

Phyllis: That sounds right

Michael: It sounds right, but is it right?

Stanley: How did Ryan use it, as an object?

Ryan: As an object

Kelly: Ryan used me as an object

Stanley: Is he right about that?

Pam: How did he use it again?

Toby: It was Ryan wanted Michael, the subject, to explain the computer system, the object -

Michael: Thank you!

Toby: ...to whomever, meaning us, the indirect object. Which is the correct usage of the word.
Michael: No one asked you anything, ever, so whomever's name is Toby. Why don't you take a letter opener and stick it in your skull?

Friday Hodge Podge

One of my female readers asked me the other if this was now exclusively a baseball blog. (You could have expressed that in a comment, I mean that's what comment boxes are for, geez). It is not, nor will it be, it just so happens that I write about what I know and where my passions lie. That'll probably be my last Mets post until March, unless Omar Minaya pulls off the insane and trades Lastings Milledge for Johan Santana. Actually, I'll be too busy to write because I'll be gone for a week or so volunteering to drive Lastings to Minnesota and pick up Johan. And Lastings, don't get any ideas. I control the radio.

Fordham held its first "Senior Night" of the year. Twenty-one year old seniors are allowed to come, drink for two bucks a beer or glass of wine, and dance the night away with fellow seniors. What I enjoyed so much is that for once Fordham was selling something under 125% of market rate. Maybe it's because Jesuits are such fans of brewskies. Anyway, I was please to find that I recognized about 90% of the people there. Of this group, a third of them I know well enough to chat with, another third I see sporadically on campus or in class, and the rest I thought died or worse transferred because I haven't seen them since freshman year in my random liberal arts core classes. I believe a good time was had by all; it was by me at least, and I look forward to next month's 80s theme.

For those of you who watch The Office, last night was so much better than the season premiere. I like the direction they're going in with Ryan, once-temp-now-boss, being villain-istic. I mean it was set up nicely the past two seasons with exposing him as a heartless corporate type more suited for Lehman than a failing regional paper company in Scranton, PA. I know I've been whining lately about devoting too much time to the romances of Jam, Relly, Janchael, and Dwangela, but they did an awesome job with all of those last night. That's in spite of the fact that two of those four (I won't say who so that you can watch the episode online and by clicking on the video link NBC knows that millions across the country actually watch the show and it can stay on for four hundred more years) didn't survive the night. My gut tells me both couples will be back together soon, and we'll be all the better for it.

Ahh, five day weekends. I'm gonna go spend mine now studying for the GMAT. It's a comfort to me knowing that tonight while all of you are getting loaded and participating in marvelous random hookups, you'll simultaneously envy me while I'm on my fourth cup of coffee taking online diagnostics.

Out.