Buffalo

Ok, sorry to those who knew this already, but this sentence got me thinking last night. (Don't you have anything better to do Mickelino on a Friday night?) I know I'm a pathetic geek, but here you are:

Possibly the weirdest sentence in the English language is:
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo”.
It takes a bit to understand this, so let’s build up from simple stuff. First, suppose that dogs chase cats, who then chase mice. Another way of saying this is:
“Cats that dogs chase, chase mice”
But the comma and the word “that” aren’t technically needed, so we can say:
“Cats dogs chase chase mice”.
But cats also chase other cats, so we could say:
“Cats dogs chase chase cats”.
And they can be chased by other cats too:
“Cats cats chase chase cats”.
Step back and look at this sentence for a moment. This is the basic structure of the buffalo sentence. Let’s think about buffalo chasing other buffalo:
“Buffalo buffalo chase chase buffalo”.
Now there’s a lesser-known English verb “to buffalo” meaning “to push around”. So instead of chasing, let’s make these buffalo push each other around:
“Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo”.
Remember that this means:
“Buffalo that buffalo push around, push buffalo around”.
For the final step, let’s just talk about a particular kind of buffalo - the kind that live in the zoo in Buffalo, New York. These, of course, are Buffalo buffalo - just as the lions are Buffalo lions.
“Buffalo buffalo that Buffalo Buffalo push around, push Buffalo buffalo around”
or more properly:
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo”.

Thank you Frog with a Blog for another great English lesson!