me, myself, and i

Since I narrowly evaded a hail of gunfire after my last post on grammatical propriety, I thought I'd give it another whirl, just to live dangerously.

Here goes:

I keep seeing pictures of people on MySpace, as well as references sprinkled throughout various blogs, that contain phrases like "Jenny and I at Silver Falls," or, "He joined my kids and I." (Primal scream)

Here's the deal. When grouping yourself with another person, identify yourself as though you are the only one involved. You wouldn't say, "He gave the gift to I," nor "If you've ever hung out with I, you'd know..." You also wouldn't say, "This is a picture of I at Silver Falls." See where I'm going? Me is the correct pronoun to use in each of these contexts. I suspect this is confusing because if you're following with a verb, the use of I is correct. "Jenny and I went to the store" is right, but it's still a picture of Jenny and me. It's pretty simple, just pretend you are the only one involved, and then add Jenny, your kids, or whomever.

We were all taught as children to say "my friend and I would like some candy," so it is ingrained into our grey matter to say "s/he and I" at all times, but I'm here to tell you, we need a little polishing. I won't even bother with a disclaimer about how I'm not trying to be a bitch. Me knows me's going to regret this altogether.

(But it's worth it if I help one of I's friends!)