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Vladimir_M comments on Five-minute rationality techniques - Less Wrong
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Another classic example of the brain's hackishness, which does not seem to have been mentioned here before, is the sentence, "More people have been to Russia than I have." If you say this sentence to someone (try it!), they'll at first claim that it was a perfectly reasonable, grammatical sentence. But then you ask them what it means, they'll start to say something, then stop, look confused, and laugh.
(Yes, there is a parsing of "have" as "possess", but this is (a) precluded by inflection, and (b) not ever what someone initially comes up with).
"More people have been to Russia than I have."
Does this test not work when written down? Or am I unusual? The sentence jarred immediately on the first reading, and I went back and read it about three times to try and figure out if it could have any meaning at all before carrying on to the rest of the paragraph.
I have never before attempted to transmit it in writing, and I'm not a linguist. But apparently, it works for at least somewhat for at least some people (see Oscar_Cunningham below). Still, I'm sorry to have spoiled for you the effect of hearing it.
Same experience here. I read it through a few times to whether if it was ungrammatical or just weird. I got a feeling of mental reward when my confusion dissolved and the actual possible meaning clicked. It would take a particular kind of brain for someone to phase a sentence that way.