Speaking of Competition

*ahem* Someone in this house and I had a conversation last night about "like me" versus "like I."

For my non-Facebook friends, I'd posted this picture of a camera case I'd seen at Claire's:

It seems that this person in my house had done some internet research and felt that either is appropriate. I will agree that either is used, and I have found a lot of support for "like me" today, mostly arguing that, like "ain't," native speakers say it, and it sounds awkward to make an, and I quote, "awkward hypercorrection." In this case, I would argue that "correction" implies that one is incorrect, so even if the alternative is awkward, it's still RIGHT.

Another support I just read says this: "As a former teacher kids would often come up with statements like 'Him and me went to the mall last night.' From what that kids said it is obvious what was meant, so I wouldn't correct a kid for making those errors." Really, former teacher? "As a former teacher kids..."? That's actually an exercise in finding an improperly-used modifying clause. I know that this former teacher meant, but she's still incorrect. "As a former teacher, I wouldn't correct kids for saying, 'Him and me...'" That's how you do it, person formerly of the educational system.

BUT, MY POINT IS: This morning, as I was showering, I was mentally diagramming the sentence "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" and realized: 1) that they also leave out "that," which I do all of the time because it's largely understood, even though I do know that it's wrong. (I fix it for professional letters, though; but Darlene can tell you she caught this one a lot when I was working for her). 2) I was mentally diagramming sentences in the shower, for the love of Pete, and seriously considering making a vlog (video + blog for some of you) so that I could parse this out and discuss both accusative and nominative forms, as well as the hypothetical "were" versus "was," and, of course, once I realized it, the invisible "that."

To summarize, I understand that the song says "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" but the case was taking that stupid, vapid anti-girl-power anthem and changing it to something still somewhat insulting, but at least it's a value to be prized: smarts. So if they really wanted to do it "smartly," the sentence should have read, "Don't you wish that your girlfriend were smart like I (am)?"

In this specific case, I prefer awkward and right than casual and... less right, even if it's accepted.

But my bigger point is: What kind of a pathetic loser diagrams sentences on the weekend, first thing in the morning, and then gets excited about making an educational video about it?

And so, I got out of the shower and ate a cookie. And then wrote this blog update. I think it's still kind of sad. But I feel better.

P.S. Before you message me about the grammatical errors in this blog, let me assure you that I included all of them as irony and just to bother you.