Lee Valley optical center punch

[Silvan]

Mine is "of." Somebody here did that just recently.

"OF" IS NOT A VERB!!!!!!!!!!!

should of, would of, etc.

I really get annoyed by things like "we should of went"

Then again, the thing about language is that it changes all the time, and it's a product of the people who speak it. I'll bet some day in the distant future "your" will mean "you are" and "of" will mean "have." Verb conjugation will be greatly simplified, and all these misconjugated irregular verbs like "blowed" and "knowed" will be normalized.

It will be appalling.

Still, the *vast* majority of people don't know any better, and a good case can be made that many of these things I've mentioned are already a /de facto/ part of vernacular American English.

[Silvan]

My constant, inappropriate overuse of periods of elipsis probably irritates you too...

Too many years of writing online have corrupted me...

[Wes Stewart]

|On 2003/12/28 12:21 PM, "Jim Wilson" wrote: | |> Bob Haar wrote... |>> I used to be a reasonably good typist, but a hand injury through off my |>> timing. |> |> Did you do that on purpose? (G) | |The hand injury - no; the use of "through" instead of "threw" - I tried to |sneak that buy (:-)

Well if yew whir to ask mi four advise, I'd advice ewe knot too due it again. One thyme is all write, butt any moor wood bee two many.

Like, you know what I mean, Dude?

[Wes Stewart]

On 28 Dec 2003 18:35:59 GMT, [e-mail] (Charlie Self) wrote: [snip] | |Here, it's "your." Here's "your" weather report, etc. Ain't mine. I is just |watching.

And during "my" weather report I might learn that I'm in for some shower "activity."

[John Carlson]

And the most frequently used (if not the only used) query: "What's up with that?" Which can mean - how did that happen? - why did that happen? - did that happen? - will that happen? - what does that mean? - what do you think about that? or probably almost anything else that can end with a question mark.

BTW, I think your conjugation must be the formal and rarely used one. IME, the present tense is the only one ever employed. So in describing a conversation that occurred yesterday, one might say "So I'm like, 'What's up with that?' and he's like ..."

-- jc Published e-mail address is strictly for spam collection. If e-mailing me, please use jc631 at optonline dot net

[Norman D. Crow]

Very cute with the *threw* Bob. Here's something else to throw some more mud in the mix, AND drive a spell checker crazy.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cambrigde Uinervtisy, it deossn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitil raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Thnaks.

Nahmie

[John Carlson]

I read a story once about a reporter for (I think) the NY Times who had written a story in which he confused the words "burro" and "burrow." His editor sent him a note saying:

"A burro is an ass. A burrow is a hole in the ground. You are expected to know the difference."

I don't think they make editors -- or reporters -- like they used to.

-- jc Published e-mail address is strictly for spam collection. If e-mailing me, please use jc631 at optonline dot net

[Larry Jaques]

On 29 Dec 2003 00:56:16 GMT, [e-mail] (Charlie Self) brought forth from the murky depths:

I know that it does, Charlie. Can you not SEE it in the above exact quote of your message?

-- Life's a Frisbee: When you die, your soul goes up on the roof. ----

Comprehensive Website Development

[jo4hn]

[jo4hn]

[Fred the Red Shirt]

The closer proximity of the 'r' key to the 'e' key on a standard keyboard often leads me to mistype an 'r' after an 'e' even though I know better. As in 'planer' instead of 'plane'. Oftent the result is a real word so it does not stand out when proofreading or spell checking.

[Charlie Self]

snip>>

Should be better now. Where that came from, I have no idea, except that the set-up seems to add a return every time I change the quote, whether *I* add a return or not.

Charlie Self

[Charlie Self]

Yes. And they're telling you what the "tempachur" is going to be, during the "twenny-four" hours coming up.

Charlie Self

[Charlie Self]

One of the hardest things for most college graduates to learn is that long words don't do the job if short words can be substituted. It was less difficult for me because I worked as a copywriter in an ad agency before going to college.

But, then, I was never an 01. Got to E4 and left.

Not just the military.

Charlie Self

[Glen]

Worse yet is the nurse in the hospital who says, "It's time for our shot now." Our shot?

Glen

[Robert Bonomi]

In other words, "eschew obfuscation", correct?

[Charlie Self]

Robert Bonomi replies:

Not at the ad agency. There, as in all marketing, it was "obfuscate with clarity."

Charlie Self

[Andy Dingley]

Amazon UK's #1 bestseller this Christmas was the book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation "

I don't think it's available from Amazon US

-- Klein bottle for rent. Apply within.

[Andy Dingley]

They're great - if you need one. Work really well for toolroom metalwork, but I've never needed to work wood to that accuracy.

-- Klein bottle for rent. Apply within.

[Dan]

On Sun 28 Dec 2003 12:25:55p, [e-mail] (Charlie Self) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Yeah, it's wrong but I think we might be watching the language change right before our eyes, like "beg the question" did back in the last century. :-)

At work, we often discuss things that have acronym names, like the three four S, spelled 34S. And we have the thirty-four; 34. In emails, it's a lot clearer to use apostrophes when we have plural of the 34. "Let's get one

34s out to customer B and three 34's to customer C." is a lot less confusing than "We need one 34s for customer B and two 34s for customer C." With acronyms being used so much, we've taken to using apostrophes just so we can get the message across quickly and I think that's happening in a lot more places than ours. In this case it might be a case of the needs of the language changing more than laziness.

Dan