Lee Valley optical center punch

[Charlie Self]

Apostrophe is wrong. The second choice may look wrong but it's right.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Charlie Self]

Swingman responds:

There are times when I wish my fingers could think as fast as I can type.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Charlie Self]

Rob Lee notes:

Like I know, but I've recently heard some people in their early 40s doing it. Makes me cringe even more.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Charlie Self]

Another pet peeve: excess punctuation, especially exclamation points which are properly used almost never.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Charlie Self]

Jim Wilson responds:

I be listening to a huddle pep talk a short while ago and couldn't understand a single word that didn't begin with F or M. And even those were badly slurred. Ah, Fox Channel.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Charlie Self]

Oh, lord, not again! That was the ne plus ultra of TV speak about a decade ago, and came close to driving me totally batshit...the TV stations around the Roanoke Valley are excellent (especially compared to the TV station here), but even the damned national newscasters got into that one. I thought it was long gone, dead, buried and rotted away, but evidently the skeleton is rising.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Charlie Self]

Don't let me stop you. :)

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Charlie Self]

Here, it's "your." Here's "your" weather report, etc. Ain't mine. I is just watching.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton

[Bob Haar]

The hand injury - no; the use of "through" instead of "threw" - I tried to sneak that buy (:-)

[Bruce]

This one time, at band camp.... LOL

[Doug Winterburn]

What was the price?

-Doug

[Larry Jaques]

On 28 Dec 2003 06:58:17 GMT, [e-mail] (Charlie Self) brought forth from the murky depths:

Do you mean to say that they're actually teaching ANY English in schools nowadays? It's not immediately obvious.

P.S: I'm going to stop replying to you until you fix your damned sig tail. Crikey, man. Have you no shame? EDIT!

========================================================== I drank WHAT? +

--Socrates + Web Application Programming

[Jim Wilson]

When needed to prevent confusion, the 's is used for the plural of capital letters and of words referred to as words.

too many I's several A's two plus's the ha ha's

-- Harbrace College Handbook, 10th Ed., p. 146

[George E. Cawthon]

It may not do any good, but record a conversation of her explaining something to you. There is nothing like listening to yourself repeating a word or a phrase over and over to understand how stupid it sounds. That's a trick used in teaching people who need to talk a lot such as teachers, salesmen, etc. The thing I hate hearing most, and I have done it, is to repeatedly end a statement with, "ok?" But "like" is about as detestable.

[SWMBO]

MMM, smell the fresh content...

I was in conversation with my son. His retort when requested to detoxify his playroom was as follows: "I am neglected, underprivileged, and generally put-upon." He is five years of age.

I heartily anticipate adolescent speech.

Warmest regards, Jenny

P.S. Many expressions of slang are nerve-racking. Please find following an exemplary list:

1. Take me with./ I want to go with. With what? An elephant?
2. Farther/Further
3. Regardless of presidential position, an individual does not have editing rights to the dictionary or its syl-LA-bles.
4. Contractions customarily end words. Jeet yet. Nuff said.

[George E. Cawthon]

If you are talking about TV, there is the familiar "I'll see you tomorrow at 6 pm." The hell he will, my TV has not hidden camera in it. I checked!

[LRod]

And your examples are no exception. You're trying to paint the wrong word with a wide brush. I don't disagree with your assessment about the misuse of certain words, but you're going at it the wrong way. I hope the preceding has illustrated my point.

There is a big difference between the possessive "your" and the contraction for you are; "you're." All of your examples were supposed to be contractions. Read them aloud to yourself but speak them as "you are" instead of "your/you're" and you'll see what I mean.

If you're talking about "your..."

I think I mentioned before the "there/their/they're" group as equally frequently misapplied.

LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[Mark]

The use of Your is one of my pet peeves also.

Seems everything has now become 'your'. When 'your' trying to get a bill passed in congress, or when 'your' going into a turn at Charlotte at

190, or when 'your' doing or experiencing anything ... I could go on for ever. Very rarely is 'your' used in a proper context.

It as if the speaker is trying to distance themselves from their actions or trying to include the passive observer.

[Silvan]

No. She's not speaking Ebonics, she's speaking Hee Haw.

[Charlie Self]

sig tail?

I'll check the sig, but I don't know if it has any tail or not.

Shortened it. I was tired of the quote, so I guess the "tail" is all that's left.

Charlie Self