OK, I have to weight in and, unfortunately, my wit is not as sharp as either of yours. I must have inadvertently stumbled upon a Freudian slip that I didn't even know existed. I hope it ended up being comical and not insulting.
I have a few loves in life including sports, medicine (well I used to) and English. I minored in English. This is not the English that forces you or allows you to read literature such as Rudyard Kipling's, Feed The Elephant's New Clothes. Or is that Don't eat in clothes worn by elephants? Anyway...
One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone uses the non-possive pronoun such as me instead of the possive pronoun, my when it precedes a gerund. A gerund is a tricky little part of grammar which describes a word which is half verb and half noun. Words like running or swimming when used in a certain context. So, the sentence, "Would you like to come watch my playing tennis today?" is correct; the sentence, "Would you like to come watch me playing today?" is not only bad grammar but is hideous to listen to. It takes awhile but like anything after awhile, it is picked up rather easily. I can hear an improper pronoun before a gerund as well as Beethoven could hear one wrong note in an entire symphony. I hear it on shows like Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN radio constantly, and it drives me crazy.
So, when I saw the sentence, "...attributing it to my jumping...," I was rather impressed.
Now, I have not read the latest on gerunes, but my guess is they would also use the proper grammar. The irony is I am also a stickler for spelling and spend more time correcting my MAs spelling in the HPI than if I had just written it myself. But, I still make typos.
Sorry.
