I just celebrated my 62nd birthday. My friend recommended that I visit a medicine man living on an Indian reservation in Northern Arizona. He gave me a ticket and whispered in my ear, “Just do what I say and your bedroom will come alive!”
After being persuaded by him, I drove to the reservation, handed my ticket to the medicine man and wondered what would happen next.
The old Indian slowly and methodically mixed the potion, handed it to me, and with a grip on my shoulder, warned, “This is powerful medicine and must be respected. You take only a teaspoonful and then say ’1-2-3.’ When you do that, you will become manlier than you have ever been in your life and remain so for as long as you want.”
I was encouraged by what he said to me. As I began to walk away, I turned suddenly and asked the old man, “How do I stop the medicine from working?”
“Your partner must say ’1-2-3-4,’ he responded. “But when she does, the medicine will not work again until the next full moon.”
I was very eager to see if it worked so I went home, showered, shaved, took a spoonful of the medicine, and then invited my wife to join me in the bedroom. When she came in, I quickly and excitedly said, “1-2-3!”
Suddenly, I was the manliest of men.
Seeing this, my wife became excited too, but then she asked, “What was the 1-2-3 for?”
And that, children, is why we should never end our sentences with a preposition!
One could end up with a dangling participle!