Example (as used by Clayton Makepeace today): “By eschewing the use of hype in his sales copy, is he telling me that he is opposed to saying, for example, ‘I could eat a horse’ unless he had substantiation proving beyond a doubt that he does, in fact, have the digestive capacity to process 1,200 pounds of horseflesh at one sitting?”

Example (as used by Roy Furr today): “He has a rabid, devoted fan base.”

The essay told the story of a student who was rebuked by his teacher for saying “He is taller than me.” The teacher sternly told him that the sentence should be “He is taller than I.”

The reader insisted that “me” is correct, or at least not wrong.

Both the reader and my friend wanted an “authoritative source” for my answer. So I turned to my favorite style guide, Garner’s Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner.

Garner begins his discussion of the question with this comment: “Traditionally, grammarians have considered than a conjunction, not a preposition….” Thus, the teacher was correct and the sentence should be “He is taller than I.” A word is implied, though not stated: “… than I am.”

In linguistic circles, this matter has had a surprisingly contentious history. Garner recognizes the contrary position held by a few mavericks who defended the use of “me.” But he concludes, sensibly: “For formal contexts, the traditional usage is generally best.” And he notes that even in informal writing, the alternative can appear awkward.

In the story, the teacher pointed out that no one would say, “He is taller than me am.” That’s a handy device to remember the officially sanctioned way to structure such a sentence.

But if you think that sounds too stuffy, just include the missing word: “He is taller than I am.”

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]

Example (as used by Virginia Heffernan in a New York Times article about collecting physical books in the Internet age): “[Cultural critic Walter] Benjamin is not to be gainsaid. If he says [acquiring but] not reading [all the books in your personal library] can be as sophisticated and European as reading them, I believe him.”

Example (as used by Howie Jacobson today): “One night, about two weeks before the dance, I purloined the corded phone in my parents’ bedroom, locked myself in my room with a phonebook, and prepared for my first foray into outbound telemarketing.”

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Example (as used by Bob Bly today): “People tell me they bought a product online, but when they called about returning it, the seller became downright opprobrious.”

Here’s an example: A TV commercial claiming that a car was carved from “a single block of steel” was heard by a viewer as “a single glockenspiel.”

Another example: A 2008 news story about newly released Nixon-era tape recordings reported that a transcriber rendered “Mao Zedong” as “Nelson’s tongue.”

Children are natural mondegreeners. Over the years, untold numbers have dutifully intoned “Jose can you see,” “I led the pigeons to the flag,” and “To the republic, for Richard Stans.”

One mondegreen subgenre is especially popular: the misheard rock music lyric. Among the most frequently cited examples:

• “There’s a bathroom on the right” for “There’s a bad moon on the rise.” (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

• “The girl with colitis goes by” for “The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.” (The Beatles)

• “‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy” for “‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky.” (Jimi Hendrix)

Many of these song lyric mondegreens have been collected by a writer named Gavin Edwards and turned into a series of funny books. And numerous websites are devoted to garbled lyrics. One of the more popular — kissthisguy.com — immortalizes the Hendrix blooper.

The word mondegreen is itself a mondegreen, created by American writer Sylvia Wright. Here’s the story.

In a 1954 article in Harper’s magazine, Wright said that, as a child, she misunderstood two lines of a 17th-century Scottish ballad. The lines were: “They ha’e slain the Earl of Moray, / And laid him on the green.” But she heard them as: “They ha’e slain the Earl of Moray, / And Lady Mondegreen.” Noting that “no one else has thought up a word for [such bloopers],” she coined the term mondegreen.

Caution: No official authority exists to authenticate mondegreens. Some are probably invented by pranksters and passed off to the unsuspecting as the genuine article. Laugh at your own risk!

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]

Example (as used by PJ McClure today): “RB’s absence of purpose was just as fundamental to his old mindset as his lack of gratitude. I’m not just talking about some transcendental concept of purpose, but about a practical, down-to-earth purpose.”

Example (as used by Ben Sisario in a New York Times review of Evening’s Empire by Bill Flanagan): “The manager is an underexplored archetype in rock lit: an insider who enables the star life yet doesn’t live it, a mover-shaker as well as an abused.

Example (as used by Frank Bruni in a New York Times review of Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris): “[Cicero's secretary] Tiro employs a tone at once grandiose and wry — this is one jaunty epic — and serves as a fly on the frescoed wall….”