Who is Josephine?

[europop2005]

"Josephine be careful of a small man with big ideas"

love the line, but who is Josephine refering to?

 

[corianderstem]

Napoleon Bonaparte's wife.

 

[JCOSTER]

Yup

 

[Galeongirl]

Napoleon Bonaparte's wife.

*ex wife. They got divorced because she was infertile.


Here's more info on her:
Joséphine de Beauharnais - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[corianderstem]

Well sure, but they were married at one point and now they're both dead, so I think "ex" is kind of a moot point for this question.

 

[Galeongirl]

Well sure, but they were married at one point and now they're both dead, so I think "ex" is kind of a moot point for this question.

Well but her last title as she was alive was ex wife. So even if they're both dead now, she's still his ex wife.

 

[U2girl]

Ali.

 

[vaz02]

They both remained quite civil to be fair, he really did love her.

 

[gvox]

Well but her last title as she was alive was ex wife. So even if they're both dead now, she's still his ex wife.

Nope. In proper English "ex-wife" is used in the present tense only.

"Josephine is his ex-wife" is logically incorrect as, being dead, she isn't anything.

"Josephine was his ex-wife" is incorrect as it lends to the implication that she no longer is his ex-wife ie they got remarried and/or she still is alive. "Was" is another word for "formerly", and in the context of marriage, you can't "formerly" be someone's ex unless y'all reconcile.

The truly correct way to write it, which fully implies that she is a. dead and b. was a wife to him when alive but not the only one, is

"Josephine was the first wife of Napoleon."

 

[BluRmGrl]

I love grammar nerds.

 

[vertpomme]

They both remained quite civil to be fair, he really did love her.

Yes, he loved her so much that he decided to have
multiple mistresses throughout the duration of their
marriage and consequent friendship.

 

[Galeongirl]

Thanks for the grammar lesson Gabe, figured it wouldn't be long until someone finally lectured me on something rather than the other way around. YOu're absolutely right.

 

[gvox]

Thanks for the grammar lesson Gabe, figured it wouldn't be long until someone finally lectured me on something rather than the other way around. YOu're absolutely right.

(the song still sucks, by the way )

 

[RedRocksU2]

I love grammar nerds.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I think of it as a reference to Napoleon complex.

I'm not going to even get into whether Bono is saying he has one or not..certainly not whether or not he does have one

 

[Galeongirl]

Uh he's said that he has one more than a few times before... And if you look at all the pics where he has his hand in his jacket the way Napoleon had.... quite obvious if you ask me!