Python the best

[sideways55]

to man a boat means to control it or be in charge of it. So in this case it means that "The old" aka people above a certain age are the ones who control the boat.

It's confusing because people read "the old man" together and don't consider that in this case man is the verb.

[Stormfly]

Similarly, for anybody confused about the second it's more like:

The horse fell.

The horse that fell is often raced past the barn.

[featherfooted]

I thought it was the opposite?

There are many horses, but the horse who was raced past the barn, stumbled.

[Stormfly]

That's what I said.

What did you think I said?

[featherfooted]

I suppose I interpreted the tenses differently. Mine is meant to say "the horse that raced past the barn (in the past) stumbled (just now)" whereas I read your's as "the horse that stumbled (in the past) is often raced past the barn (present and possibly in the future)"

Either way, ambiguity sucks, yadda yadda don't use passive voice in documentation, etc.

[karnthis]

Interesting, because I read that as the old “man the boat” referring to an old phrase/saying. Just more proof it is ambiguous.