My brother Craig is a surfer, and his idol is 11-time world champion, surfing legend, Kelly Slater. Yesterday, Craig, who lives on the other side of the country, texted me with a grammar emergency. Here’s our conversation

Craig:     I need an expert to confirm something. I read a post that says “Kalani and I with John and family in Hawaii.” Shouldn’t it be “Kalani and me”? The pressure is on with this one. For some reason I corrected Kelly Slater’s grammar on Instagram. What was I thinking?

Me:        Bad news.

Craig:     Oh, no.

Me:        You made a grammar fool of yourself in front of Kelly Slater.

Craig:     I usually know better than to try to be smart…

Me:        It’s a photo caption.  No real rules there anyway, but it’s not a complete sentence. No verb. If   It’s short for “This is a picture of.” You’d be right: “Kalani and me.” But it could just as well be short for “This IS Kalani and I…” which is correct.

Craig:     I’m about to apologize and bow out gracefully. Not only has Kelly called me out, but now more of his thousands of followers are calling me an idiot.

Me:        Yes, I recommend a slice of humble pie.

Craig:     I have no idea why I even commented. I should just shut up and keep swinging my hammer.

Me:        Look on the bright side. At least you’ve given me a new blog post idea!

A tragic tale of an overconfident grammar gremlin paddling out into the deep waters before he’s ready for the big surf. Let this be a lesson to us all. 🙂

Actually, I’m kind of surprised that a heated grammar debate broke out among surfers on social media. Who knew?

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