It's really sort of amazing that people manage to communicate in the English language Here are some typical sentences: 1. You may have cake or you may have ice cream 2. If pigs can fly, then you can understand the Chernoff bound 3. If you can solve any problem we come up with then you get an a for the course. 4. Every American has a dream What precisely do these sentences mean? Can you have both cake and ice cream or must you choose just one desert? If the second sentence is true, then is the Chernoff bound incomprehensible? If you can solve some problems we come up with but not all, then do you get an a for the course? And can you still get an a even if you cant solve any of the problems? Does the last sentence imply that all Americans have the same dream or might