Hi, Paul!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    AH>  Thanks to Dallas for sharing this article:   
      
    AH>  -the-language-rules-we-know-but-dont-know-we-know   
      
    AH>  I'm still chuckling over it, and I've requested the book   
    AH>  from the library.  :-)   
      
    PQ>  And that is why I've never feared purple people eaters.  :-P   
      
      
           Or ferocious fire-breathing dragons, or enormous meat-eating dinosaurs?   
      
           Now that you mention it... the lyrics say "a one-eyed one-horned   
   flying purple people eater", IIRC.  I'm not quite sure how these added words   
   would fit the theory, unless one considers them as +/- pertaining to shape,   
   but the whole kit & kaboodle sounds right AFAIC.  You've reminded me of   
   another song here too   
   ... i.e. the one about an "itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny yellow polka dot bikini".    
   It seems to me that with all of the above we're not afaid of them because, if   
   they ever actually existed, they don't pose any real danger to us... and   
   because, if the series is very long &/or very silly, it makes us laugh.   
      
           Thankyou!  I hope other native speakers will join the fun.  I also   
   hope somebody will have noticed that I used "a"... not "an"... with   
   "one-eyed".  ;-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)