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SupportSanity

(1,264 posts)
12. There are two ways to look at ...
Sun Feb 2, 2025, 06:38 PM
Feb 2

I was originally thinking of that famous Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" where the aliens come to down to earth and seem to want to help all mankind. But then their secret book is found entitled "To Serve Man" and it turns out to be a cookbook - all the recipes were how to cook up meals using humans - another way of looking at "to serve man".

So I was thinking about other dual meaning phrases and came up with "Starving Artists".
it could be interpreted as
(The) Starving Artists
or
Starving (the) Artists.

So, just playing with two or three word phrases that have dual meanings as a mental exercise.
I just wanted an explanation as to why the same phrase can be different grammatically. It's been many many years since I touched Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style".

I figured there are a lot of smart people on this board and someone knows the answer.

And thanks. I do appreciate the help.

So,..... Anyone have any other dual meaning phrases?

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