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From: rccall@dartvax.UUCP (R. Christian Call)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d,net.flame
Subject: Re: "Who" vs. "Whom"...
Message-ID: <1924@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Jun-84 17:10:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.1924
Posted: Mon Jun 25 17:10:05 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Jun-84 03:14:25 EDT
References: <304@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP>
Organization: Dartmouth College
Lines: 22

> Here for those who are interested is the story of how I came to a bad 
> end regarding the use of "who" and "whom":  eight years ago I asked my
> friend Tim, who does comp lit at Princeton, to explain when to use "who" and
> when to use "whom."  Well, says Tim, here's how to remember: prepositions are
> used with "whom" (ie. at, with, etc.).  That was it--my whole entire lesson
> from a man who speaks countless languages with ease and who plans to make his
> living writing articles for "Comp Lit Today."  For eight long years I followed
> this rule faithfully, blindly trusting good old Tim.  

"Good old Tim" gave you a correct rule, but an incomplete one.  Quite
simply, "who" is used as a subject, and "whom" is used as an object.
Thus, "whom" is always used as the object of a preposition (Tim's rule);
but it is also used as the object of a verb.  In your case, we can
"undo" the sentence "I don't care whom this offends" and re-write it as

      ... this (subject of clause) offends (verb) whom (object).

Please excuse the lecture; I'm just trying to be helpful.
-- 

Jerry:   She was one in a million.             R.C.Call
Howard:  Yeah, I know a million of those.      decvax!dartvax!rccall