MSGID: 1:153/716.0 d05bd182   
   REPLY: 1:3634/12.73 5cfa69ff   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Mark!  Recently you wrote in a message to Alexander Koryagin:   
      
    AK>  My mother answered her that the doctor would not know   
    AK>  if she was turning blue with that stuff on.   
      
    ml>  or ordered slightly differently...   
      
    ml>  My mother answered her that with that stuff on, the   
    ml>  doctor would not know if she was turning blue.   
      
    ml>  i make this distinction because of the question is she   
    ml>  turning blue /because/ of the stuff or is the stuff   
    ml>  simply hiding the possible blueness...   
      
      
              I also struggled with matters of clarity in this tale.  It's   
   obvious to me that if a person's lips and/or nail beds seem to be turning blue   
   the most likely explanation is that... for whatever reason... these areas   
   aren't getting enough oxygen.  I learned such things many years ago when I   
   babysat a girl with a heart defect... and my mother was acquainted with her &   
   other family members. What's obvious to some individuals may not be to others,   
   though, and the reader shouldn't have to guess which alternative the writer   
   had in mind.  Your comment evoked a memory of a visit to the GP's office in   
   which our daughter admired his female colleague's nail polish.  That's another   
   alternative... [chuckle].   
      
              Being a Canadian with ex-Brit roots I'd add a comma before "with"   
   in Alexander's version, and in your version too.  I interpret "with that stuff   
   on" as a parenthetical expression, i.e. a qualifying or explanatory remark   
   which in mid-sentence is generally used with a comma on either side but which   
   may be set apart with dashes or ellipses when we're writing colloquially in   
   FidoMail.  :-Q   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)   
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