SQL queries don't start with SELECT
This is one of the things MS Entity Framework gets right - it enforces the "start with FROM".  It actually <i>ends</i> with SELECT, which makes so much more sense.<p>Seriously, between navigational properties, group-with-children, EF to me hammers home how <i>bad</i> SQL is.  EF is a square peg in a round hole but it does a great job at makign some trivial improvements over SQL, while still remaining true to the principles of relational databases.<p>Of course, the framework is a hairy mess for other reasons (lazy loading, untranslateable methods, ugly generated queries) but the alternative to SQL it presents is <i>lovely</i>.