What level are you fencing competitively at?

[downunder]

i'm curious to see what level people are generally competing at on the board.

Just vote for the highest level of fencing you have done within the last few years.

[Army Fencer]

Does my botched trip to Cuba count as a WC?

[noodle]

i'd say yes
and also, boo to ending sentences with 'at'

[Zilverzmurfen]

Voted "Junior or Senior World Cups" as highest level but then remembered I've actually been to a few "Military World Championships" during the past few years. (Never did much of a result in either, though...)

[Inquartata]

Oh, look, a bell curve. How unlikely!

[Army Fencer]

Originally Posted by Zilverzmurfen

Voted "Junior or Senior World Cups" as highest level but then remembered I've actually been to a few "Military World Championships" during the past few years. (Never did much of a result in either, though...)

Been invited there...

[esskreemr]

Originally Posted by downunder

i'm curious to see what level people are generally competing at on the board.

I'd planned on going NAC this year, but I'll have to see if the tendonitits in my arm clears up...

[Tomax]

I second the motion against unneccessary "at's"

[Artisan]

Originally Posted by Tomax

I second the motion against unneccessary "at's"

"at's" at the end of sentences are a rampant disease in "certain" neighborhoods in Philadelphia - seems to be frequently accompanied by loud gum chewing with one's mouth open.

[MyraTrue]

I think the issue for me picking my answer on the poll was that you didn't put in collegiate!

But for me, I fence at the collegiate level, and the local opens around the area. I don't compete at a level above that. I don't, in part, feel that I'm good enough to attempt to fence at a higher level. I can get my butt kicked by the A's around here without paying more and flying somewhere else to do it.

[Peach]

As an English teacher, I am going to pipe up and say that the convention against ending with a preposition is a fairly recent creation and not necessary. Latin had a rule against ending a sentence with a preposition. English has no such rule. It is sometimes preferable to avoid ending with a preposition, and sometimes it is preferable to end with a preposition, but clarity is more important than pseudo-grammatical contortionism.

Or, as Winston Churchill put it:

"That is the kind of thing up with which I will not put."

[BrianH]

I competed in the Nike World Masters Games in 1998. It was an international tournament, though it wasn't world championships and there was no qualification except age. Otherwise, my highest competitions have been Nationals, both Div I and Summer. Ninety percent of my fencing has been within the division and section. I never competed in college, since I began the sport at age 33.

BrianH

[Inquartata]

Recent convention or not, the vast majority of sentences ended with prepositions look and sound grating. They almost always can be avoided with a minimum of effort, certain English wags' apothegms notwithstanding.

[Maeve_Mari]

Originally Posted by Artisan

"at's" at the end of sentences are a rampant disease in "certain" neighborhoods in Philadelphia - seems to be frequently accompanied by loud gum chewing with one's mouth open.

yo, where zee at?

[morael]

Yay, Peach! Now let's hear it for so-called "split infinitives"! As an editor, I'm fed up with the necessity actually to contort a sentence around them.

[sabreur]

Originally Posted by morael

Yay, Peach! Now let's hear it for so-called "split infinitives"! As an editor, I'm fed up with the necessity actually to contort a sentence around them.

The split infinitive rule is another twist dreamed up by Latin-besotted rule makers in the 19th Century. You can't split an infinitive in Latin (the infinitive form is a single word "amare" in Latin, as opposed to two words "to contort" in English), so you shouldn't do so in English. A wholly artificial and unneeded rule.

MR

[noodle]

churchill said a lot of things

Originally Posted by churchill

Yes, Mrs. Braddock, I am drunk. But you, Mrs. Braddock are ugly, and disgustingly fat. But, tomorrow morning, I, Winston Churchill will be sober.

[Peach]

Originally Posted by morael

Yay, Peach! Now let's hear it for so-called "split infinitives"! As an editor, I'm fed up with the necessity actually to contort a sentence around them.

Yes, I have to save my energy for more disturbing things such as the rampant confusion between the possessive "its" and the contraction "it's," and the mysterious and murky misunderstood differences separating "their," "they're," and "there."

[esskreemr]

Originally Posted by Peach

Yes, I have to save my energy for more disturbing things such as the rampant confusion between the possessive "its" and the contraction "it's," and the mysterious and murky misunderstood differences separating "their," "they're," and "there."

Your fighting an uphill battle, what level are you're students at? Your students are at what level? Whew, sounds much better that way

[jeff]

Originally Posted by noodle

churchill said a lot of things

I thought a version of that was for Lady Astor. Along with the exchange:

Lady Astor: (disgusted look on face) Winston, were you my husband, I'd poison your tea.
Churchill: Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.