Willis Jefferson Polk was born in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1867 and although it has been said that he had seven siblings, most died before they reached adolescence. In his lifetime, Willis would know only two sisters, Endemial and Daisy and one brother, Daniel.



From an account of the American architect's life on a site -- which Plep rightly calls "beautifully designed" -- devoted to Polk and his work. Certainly worth a visit, but here's an example of an exasperating usage, one that's become endemic to biographical writing and that's made a show like A&E's Biography often a chore to watch. As if the riches of the English language in her sequence of verb tenses provided no alternative, the auxiliary "would" has been dragooned into the service of creating some spurious "future-in-the-past" construction. Like hip-huggers on a matron, it's unreasonable, unnecessary, indecorous and ugly. Let it cease.