[greymule]

Careful and good evening are elliptical expressions meaning you be careful and may you have a good evening. Even goodbye, in its full-sentence form, is may God be with ye. But when our elementary school teachers told us to write in complete sentences, they wanted to see all the words on the paper.

Keep in mind that many of the rules we learned in elementary school (don't start a sentence with and or but or because; don't end a clause with a preposition) may have been appropriate for kids, but they don't apply to someone more skilled at writing. I remember the first day of school in 1973, when an eighth-grader of mine wrote about the television program he liked least: "Honeymooners. Same thing every wheek [sic]. Plus it stinks. And he does." That kid needs rules, whether they are fully accurate or not.

Oddly, a few years later a large state university adjudged that kid sufficiently scholastically competent to attend their institution (must have been my good teaching). Then the kid surprised them by turning out to be a terrific defensive tackle and a key to their top-ten ranking.

Today--no, he's not a TV critic--he plays slow pitch softball and blasts the ball over the fence at will.

Now, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, that's bad grammar.