her eerie husband) think about anything. This is not correct: Remind me again why I care what this feckless nonentity (and her eerie husband) thinks about anything. An “and” is an “and,” and the use of parentheses (or commas or dashes) to break up a plural subject for whatever reason does not negate the pluralness of the subject. Now, if instead of writing “and,” I’d written “to say nothing of,” “as well as,” or “not to mention,” then I’d have made me a singular subject: Remind me again why I care what this feckless nonentity (to say nothing of her eerie husband) thinks about anything.*31
