The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Sunday, May 07, 2006  

THE CASES OF SLEEPLESSNESS
Was, Were, and What Would it Matter?

It's no wonder I cannot relax, and that I have difficulty sleeping, when I'm confronted, while innocently riding the El, with posters for Heineken Premium Light that read, in relevant part:

If Only Every Ride Was This Smooth.

The advertisement's erroneous, or at least misguided, capitalization notwithstanding, may I just ask, in one word, "Was?"

Again: If only every ride "was"?

Let me introduce Heineken's agency copywriters to an apparently unfamiliar concept, that known to a dwindling few of us as the subjunctive.

As in:

If only every ride were this smooth.

Emphasis added.

And obviously necessary.

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