A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the nefarious phrase “could care less” (The popularity of “could care less” cannot be underestimated) saying it was not worth getting uptight about its use. I must have some very lenient readers because no one took umbrage at this thesis, which kind of made my exhortation at the end a little superfluous. […]
READ MOREHere we go, another grammar article full of the most awful bollocks. 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Gets Wrong by Jon Gingerich. Go read it, I’ll wait. […]
READ MOREPersonally speaking, I find the usage of “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less” to be a little annoying. I’d even go further: to my ear it sounds illogical: “hey, if you could care less then you must care a bit!” Much merriment and good-natured joshing ensue, ho, ho, ho. But, to be honest, life’s too short to start a grammar war over it. […]
READ MOREWe’ve just returned from our annual outing to Orlando so that my wife could run the Walt Disney World Marathon. (Before you ask: 4:04:16, which is her best time for a while.) When you arrive at the airport, you have to take the train from the gates to the terminal. It’s always made me laugh when the recorded announcement, in a very Walt Disney World voice, says “This train will be departing momentarily” and I feel like quipping “when’s it going to continue?” It’s the way I tell ’em. […]
READ MOREEvery now and then, I get one of those – ahem – marketing emails offering me a place in some seminar that promises to teach me good business writing. I love reading them to try and find not so obvious grammar errors (Grammar Nazi, moi?) and thereby vindicate my belief that such workshops are pretty worthless. Invariably, one of the bullet points of things you’d learn by attending the session is how to write numbers in text. “Learn one simple rule,” the email goes, “and never get it wrong again.” Or something along those lines. […]
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