Yesterday’s Zits:
Something more direct might have worked better.
Jeremy’s mother chose not to give a direct instruction to her son — probably because it would have been taken as maternal nagging (though it’s odd to be second-guessing the motivations of cartoon characters). So she moved from something like the direct
You should memorize it.
(itself more indirect than Memorize it!) to
It would good be a good idea for you to memorize it.
and then from the active to the passive
It would be a good idea for you to have it memorized.
and then, fatally, to versions with the agent suppressed and not necessarily suppliable from context:
It would be a good idea to have it memorized.
Fatally, because the last version allows the hearer — in this case, Jeremy — to supply any agent in interpretation, so subverting his mother’s intention to be very very cautiously directive.
Politeness (well, circumspection) is often at odds with clarity.
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