I enjoyed Ben Zimmer's On Language piece on the pronoun we today: Link

I loved this anecdote:

quote:

Theodore Rockwell, who served as technical director for the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-propulsion program in the 1950s and ’60s, shared a telling anecdote about his onetime boss, the famously irascible Adm. Hyman G. Rickover. “One time he caught me using the editorial we, as in ‘we will get back to you by. . . .’ ” Rockwell recalled in his memoir, “The Rickover Effect.” “He explained brusquely that only three types of individual were entitled to such usage: ‘The head of a sovereign state, a schizophrenic and a pregnant woman. Which are you, Rockwell?’ ”

I certainly use we a lot when speaking to audiences about our organization, but I don't think it's the same thing. We do work collectively, but then so do editorial writers. The Tribune uses we in their editorials, and I never mind it.

One comment that made me chuckle was the one from the Lone Ranger: "We, kemo sabe?" Shu says that to me all the time, and it has become a one of those family phrases (similar to our "that and a dollar fifty will get you on the CTA.")

Lindbergh wasn't a head of state, but wrote this anywe: http://www.amazon.com/WE-Darin...lantic/dp/1585747084

And we can't forget he who cried "We, we, we, we," all the way home.

Oh, oui, oui, oui!

My pig was 100% 'Merican pork.

So's mine - Cajun.

The article mentioned "How are we feeling today?" A guy in college used to say that all the time. Bugged the hell out of me.

It also mentioned a stock answer, “We? You got a mouse in your pocket?” The one I remember is, "Whadaya mean "we"; got a turd in your pocket?"

we can't forget he who cried "We, we, we, we," all the way home.

Replace "he who" with "him who". We're just saying ...

quote:

Replace "he who" with "him who".

Logically and grammatically, but not idiomatically.

Logically and grammatically, but not idiomatically.

Possibly, but it does not sound very idiomatic to mine ear.

And let's not forget the little pig that cried "We, we, we, we," all the way home. But, let's not get hung up on pedantic isms.

quote:

The article mentioned "How are we feeling today?" A guy in college used to say that all the time. Bugged the hell out of me.

I hear you, Tinman (well, not really, but you get my point!). There is nothing worse than a physician who approaches his patient that way. As my friend used to say, "Gag a maggot!"

My soon to be ex-supervisor uses "we" constantly. To paraphrase him, we will be happy to be rid of that job and him.