OT: Another Grammar Rant

I have been seeing "loose" instead of "lose" more and more often as in "I'd hate to loose my current WIP on the train." Has something been updated in Webster's and I've not been notified?

Duhhhhhhhhhh! That's what I get for trying to squeeze email in before leaving for an appointment. :-)

Liz from Humbug

I particularly loved driving along the streets of the cottage community where not-quite-ex-H resides, and seeing all the signs. The Brown's. The Kwiatkowski's. The Prendergast's. I like to imagine it is like the Highland chieftains--The MacDonald, or whatever. And in each of the little cabins is a head of a far flung clan--I am The Prendergast! Amazed I have gone out at night and wrecked the signs with a baseball bat as is commonly done with roadside mailboxes.

Dawne

"Charged with driving with undue care and attention. " A few stupid newscasters say that quite regularly. Serious crime indeed, paying more attention than you need to.

Dawne

ROTFLMAO!!! That's not something I see over here in N'cle (thankfully). Few people even name their houses and it's pushing things uphill to even get them to number their houses legibly.

Having said that, though, the people who live opposite us have called their historic home 'Rosemar House' as a double tribute to the daughters of the pioneer settler who built it. They were called 'Rose' and 'Marie', see.

Well, Lorraine went out and purchased some lovely eight-inch high wooden letters and the word 'Rosemar' *just* fitted by a whisker into the space beneath her parlour window. BUT - the place is known almost universally as 'Rosemary House' and everyone believes she couldn't afford to purchase the necessary 'Y' and so left it out. LOL! This drives poor Lorraine mad and she's constantly explaining to people that 'Rosemar' was on purpose.

ROTFL! Now, that puts me in mind of 'Cat On a Hot Tin Roof' where Maggie refers to Goopers 'little no-neck monsters'.

I've got another one (peeve, that is). It's highly personal and I don't expect anyone to agree with me. This is just *my* annoyance, okay?

'Comedic'.

If you look it up in the dictionary, it will tell you that 'comedic' is an adjective derived from 'comedy'. However, there was already a perfectly good word(s) to use in this instance and that would be 'comic' or 'comical', depending on where you'd want to use it.

Back in the dark ages, when I was concerned with teen acne, I was told that a 'comedo' is a blackhead and that a 'comedic extractor' could be used to remove its contents effectively. I've never forgotten that, so whenever I hear someone referred to as 'comedic', I assume he's afflicted with ragingly open, dirty pores!

What was wrong with 'comic' or 'comical' anyway?

I prefer a rearrangement of the sentence - "23 soldiers were killed in..." And while ranting - why do people say "nukelar" instead of "nuclear" or "skelington" instead of "skeleton"?

Here's another one. When did they start saying "I wish I would have" instead of "I wish I had"? My teacher Miss Bingaman would be outraged!

Duhhhhhhhhhh! That's what I get for trying to squeeze email in before leaving for an appointment. :-)

Liz from Humbug

I could be flat out wrong, but I've always felt that there's a subtle, but real, difference. I've always used "comic" or "comical" to mean "funny," but "comedic" to mean "related to comedy." In other words, someone is a comedic actor if he or she works in comedies, but a comic actor if his or her acting is funny ;-) Obviously, there's a significant amount of overlap in usage, and I'm not sure everyone draws the same distinction (or even that they should), but that's how I've always interpreted the usage.

Best wishes, Ericka

And there are the ambulance chasing law firms who want you to call them immediately if you swallow your tongue or suffer death. I had not realized that there was a proof-reader here. Do you find that it is easy to spot all mistakes except your own? I suspect we read what we expect to see and therefore don't notice when we write abdominal when we mean abominable. Polly

"Karen C - California" How about the news that Billy Mays "woke up dead"?

e's as spry as a phly. Isn't that great?)

hmm, yes I s'pose, for your sake

You mean "jail"???? LOLOL! Same rule applies! HA! (Unless you pronounce "gaol" differently than our spelling? When I first saw that word *eons* ago, I thought, "What's gay-ole?")

ROTFL! I *knew* you'd come up with the exceptions!!!!

Obviously, it is!

YIKES! Reminds me of the time when DS#1 was in 3rd grade. He came home with his spelling lists twice with words misspelled by the teacher: marshmellow and hydrophonics. She was actually glad I brought them to her attention, although DS wouldn't believe me until I talked to the teacher, the little toad!

Joan

Joan

Then there was the teacher who wrote on the blackboard that someone caught a "glimp" of something. When a student remarked that it ought to be "glimpse", the teacher said that that was the plural. Jim.

English isn't the only language with rules of exception, so to speak. But, it is certainly confusing for those whose background is romance language first.

Well, thanks for the film ref. I'll have to look for it.

One of the few things I do actually bake myself. Scones. Usually make a batch that lasts a few days - in an airtight canister. Not great with some other things - but I think 'cause I really like scones, and got quite addicted when living in the UK. Plus, I made the hotel owner when I lived in Southend (well, really Westcliff) show me how she did them, as well as the wife of a beloved colleague. Seems whenever I would be posted overseas I'd end up weaseling family recipes from some colleagues' wives (have a fabulous chocolate mousse recipe - handed down from the family restaurant oustide of Lyon). Funnily enough, at Caribou they just changed the bakery recipe/style for the scones, and have gone to a round version - but they don't quite look like scones to me - although closer in texture to what I think of. Now, for some lovely Clotted cream (hardly good for my Weight Watchers plan - and tonight is meeting night). Ah, well. It's nice to think about.

I think it's just that people just spell check without checking it thoroughly for grammar. Honestly, as far as I can remember, people have misused the apostrophe WRT plurals. The other thing - how about remembering to put a period inside of a final quote? That's always popping up.

Ellice

And that particular "scone" is pronounced "skoon"

And what is a "near miss"??? Shouldn't that be "near hit"????

just me, Cathy from KY in CA

I frequently make scones, and people go quite gaga over them. I use the recipe in Julia Child's baking book - though usually I only do 1/2 the recipe, for 6 scones, if it's just for us. Last week I did some blueberry scones and shared them with the neighbor, and the woman next store is coming over one afternoon this week when our schedules coordinate for a scone prep demonstration. They're so easy, and people are so easily impressed by them!

For the blueberry ones, I left the blueberries in the freezer until the very last second before they were to be kneaded in, so they stayed frozen and just burst in place when baked - also made the dough chilled and knead easily.

My family is so spoiled - scones and muffins were frequently made for b'fast, and always piping hot out of the oven - there's really no other way that they taste so excellent. After a couple of hours, if any remained, nobody had any interest in eating them! And when the kids had friends over, they were in heaven - most had never had fresh-baked muffins/scones. Deprived children!

Another memory: When DD#1 was about 3 or 4 y.o. I found a small spiral book called "making muffins" that was a recipe book, with one word to one sentence directions on each page. It was HER cookbook, and we used it often until she had it memorized - she'd stand on top of the step-stool at the counter, wearing a small apron. (One page had a picture of the bowl, with the wooden spoon standing up in it, with the direction, "mix mix mix." I can still picture it!) (I think that book is in her cedar chest, waiting for the next generation.)

sue

as spry as a phly. Isn't that great?)

Thenk yew! That was a great concession! I gave her a pea last night in your name.

erm... it's 'aeons', isn't it?

;->

Advantage, receiver! Your shot! ;->

Grumble. My friend, PDC reckons she's going to start carrying a red marker pen and correct things! (She's a teacher by trade and another pedant by nature so...)

O boy! I can remember how scary it was when Mum wanted to talk to the teacher over stuff like that. I thought I was imminently going to die of Assassination By Nun, but I never did. Well, obviously, since I'm here to tell the tale! LOL!

Ahhhh! I have scone envy! I do all the stuff the recipe books say, but to no avail. I do make rather nice Sour Cream and Cheese Scones, but they're kind of different, in that they're meant to be heavier and the sour cream rescues them from being too stodgy. Mum's scones are pretty execrable too, so it must be a learned thing.

I realised just the other day that sometimes my hands type without my brain editing what comes out, resulting in *dreadful* spelling errors. The most annoying one I do is to write 'to' instead of 'too' without noticing I've done it. Grrrr!