Do we have to include 'or not' when we use 'whether'? Should we just stick to 'whether'? Can we simply just remove 'or not' from this grammatical equation all the time? Thanks for your help with this.
'Or not' is technically superfluous. In practice, it depends on what you're comparing. If you're deciding whether to use the full thing, you should figure out whether or not the two things to be compared are equal (whenever you want a 50/50 sense, you'll get more of that by using 'or not,' but be very careful when you use it, as it stands out and can very easily stand out in a bad way.)
Thank you, Aconite! Wow! What a small world! I'm here in Albany, too. We're probably neighbors and don't even know it!
I'm outside of Cobleskill at the moment--but moving in to downtown Albany within the next week or two. I grew up in Delmar.
I lived on West Fulton Road in Cobleskill about 12 years ago and also lived in Delmar at Adam's Station on Juniper Drive. This is really messed up! The craziest thing of all is that I work in downtown Albany on Delaware and Myrtle Avenue. (No joke!) And we both joined this forum in June 2010! Crazy stuff!
Haha! Did you also live in East Durham? If so, I am seriously wondering if you are a parental unit. (Don't worry; you're not. ) I lived on Roweland Ave. in Delmar (across from town hall) and currently am in Summit. Not even people from Albany know where Summit is, though, so Cobleskill-more-or-less it is. I'm moving to Center Square; already work down near the Capitol.
it's a bit more complicated than a matter of the equality of parts... http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipapr96.htm
Summit? The Red Barn rings a bell ... hell, I graduated from high school in Jefferson, which is a town up from Summit (approximately 7 miles). The Heartbreak Hotel in Jefferson was an '80s haunt of mine. Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!