Thursday, May 10, 2012

Hedgehog's dilemma

This has been making the rounds of the social networks:



Now, I can't confirm that there's actually an A. Hedgeh, Ph.D., which is what I'd assume the "Dr." would be in this instance. (Medical doctors would never have their name on anything, including a cocktail napkin, without the M.D. designator.)

What interests me about this is not the cleverness about adding "og" to "Hedgeh". It's the abomination of using the objective case ("whomever") for the subject of the clause. I shudder to think of the standards of any academic institution that would grant a doctorate to someone who hasn't grasped that difference, much less hiring him/her.

Also, I'm not wild about the merging of "door" and "sign".

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