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In reply to the discussion: I haven't seen any actual Obamabots here. [View all]DanTex
(20,709 posts)You could also write "time flies in a way similar to the way that an arrow flies" if you were truly concerned about alternate parsings, but since nobody besides a linguist on acid would parse "time flies like an arrow" differently, then there's no point. On the other hand, if you want the imperative, you do have to rephrase it somehow (e.g. "time flies the same way you would time an arrow" , even though technically the imperative parsing of the original phrase is grammatically correct.
"Fuck you Mr President you piece of shit used car salesman" has only one natural, common sense parsing. If you want to emphasize piece-of-shitness of the used cars being sold, you simply have to use another phrasing. Especially if you start off with "fuck you." And since Will Pitt is a columnist by profession, he would be aware of this.