Tom grinned. “See, Aunt Ellie, that’s a ‘prescriptive rule.’ Bas Aarts would say my sentence is fine. ‘Me’ in subject coordination is common in informal English.”
Tom nodded, chewing. “Aarts calls it a ‘thematic choice.’ The agent is suppressed because the speaker wants to avoid blame. Not bad grammar—just politics.”
She didn’t correct his sentence. She no longer needed to. Bas Aarts hadn’t given her a rulebook. He had given her a mirror—and in it, language lived, breathed, and occasionally split an infinitive with perfect grace.