Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for September 24, 2024

Seems, that Mr. D. is looking out here at his audience.

Are teachers still correcting kids over “may I?” vs “can I?” They were doing that when I was a kid in the 60’s. They’d always ask “I don’t know, can you?”

Left yourself wide open for that one.

I can leave it on your desk or you may prefer if I take it elsewhere.

It’s an older gag, but it checks out!! XD!!

We had a teacher who would always make you wait, seemed to be some kind of weird power thing. it was hard to concentrate on learning when you really had to go

Mr. D is fighting a losing battle here. The distinction between can and may was made up in the twentieth century. Even the Oxford English Dictionary defines can as “Expressing objective possibility, opportunity, or absence of prohibitive conditions: be permitted or enabled by the conditions of the case” and includes examples of this usage dating back to the twelfth century. Give it up already, grammar pedants. Nobody needs this arbitrary grammatical rule that serves only to make you feel superior.

“I dunno. Can you ?”

Since they both belong to “The Same Shirt Club”, they should understand each other perfectly!