THAT

As a lover of the English language, I am always astounded at how many instances of the word "that" that I have to insert into authors' writings.  I do it all the time!

What happened to make the word "that" an endangered species in our language?  It is such a wonderful word and it tells us so much.

I learned that in some sub-dialects of American English, such as in the Northeast and Northwest of the United States, that the word "that" is not used in speech, thus writers do not use it in writing. I also have discovered that the word is omitted by line editors for television and radio commercials and that this followed on the elimination of the word in telephone operators' greetings and replies. I guess AT&T, at one time, schooled its operators to NOT use the word "that," even when that was the right word to use.

The word "that" is most commonly used, needed, as an adverb. But that is exactly when it is taken out of writing. 

My fellow editor at JLS, Koni Atencio, says I have a fixation with the word "that," but that is okay with me!  It is such a cool word that I don't mind being teased about it. 

Did you know that you can use the word "that" four times in a row in a sentence and it is grammatically correct?  My eighth grade English teacher, Ms. Hanson, told us this at the beginning of the year and promised she would write the sentence on the board before we finished the class, but she never did. It took me nearly 25 more years to figure it out for myself.  Here goes:

After seeing the balloon rise up into the sky, he was wondering why that that that that happened so easily and swiftly. 

Yes, that is grammatically correct.  You word gurus, break it down and diagram it.  You'll see.

We need two things, in my opinion.   The first is a national organization devoted to saving the word "that" and the second is a National That Day to celebrate this wonderful word.  Who will join me in the Crusade for That?