MOTUnation.com

Another one of my extremely off topic rants:

The expression is, "I COULDN'T care less." I could care less doesn't even make sense. I just heard that one too many times today. I hate when people get that one wrong. Aaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!

What expression drives you nuts when people get it wrong? Just curious.

BTW, if I ever make a blunder like that here feel free to give me a thorough verbal lashing.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

The heighth of your arrogance is astounding, Phil!

https://writingexplained.org/height-vs- ... difference

Oxford commas

When people use "Begs the question" to mean "raises the question". I wonder if I'll ever get used to that.

Begs/begging the question has a very specific meaning about circular reasoning.

People use it to sound more smarter, but it backfires.

I remember it used to make me roll my eyes when people would utilize the word "utilize", rather than using the word "use". Sigh.

There was a time when some official used the term "niggardly" to describe some funding matter; it means stingy and has no racial origins. Still the guy had to resign. Now, I kind of get that one, but I think an explanation and apology should suffice, why must he resign just because his vocabulary included kind of a doozy.

OK, when people use the word "Dongle" to describe an adapter. The original meaning was good; a device which occupies a port, but performs no function other than copy protection. The fact that it uselessly dongles there is why it is so named.

I could care less; I can forgive because here's what my brain does:

"I could care less... but not by much."

mikehalloran wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 10:49 am Oxford commas

When I was in public school (many moons ago) my teacher explained that the "and" or "or" takes the place of the final comma. I don't know if she was right or not, but it stuck with me.

Phil O wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 11:16 am

mikehalloran wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 10:49 am Oxford commas

When I was in public school (many moons ago) my teacher explained that the "and" or "or" takes the place of the final comma. I don't know if she was right or not, but it stuck with me.

I was taught the same as you by a wonderful 8th grade English teacher who could explain the logic behind every rule.

Oxford commas are a recent affectation — I first encountered them in a friend's business typing textbook in the late 1970s and was appalled to find that bad writing was now being taught. "Johnny can't read" was now writing textbooks. The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary wish that they were called anything else. Like they, I consider them a hallmark of bad writing.

Listen to an AI bot read a paragraph with them. The bot always hesitates before the conjunction when someone places a comma there. It sounds silly and unnatural.

My wife likes them and wrote a historical novel set in the mid 19th C., well over a century before they appeared in modern prose. My cross to bear.

Heighth. I haven't come across that one before, HC. I can see how that would be bothersome.

Well, irregardless, it is what it is, if I may.

Phil O wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 11:43 am Heighth. I haven't come across that one before, HC. I can see how that would be bothersome.

OMG... super common in CA. Along with "acrossed," and "whenever."

As in, "I was surprised by the heighth of the bus whenever I went acrossed the street an hour ago."

My wife and I love the movie Moonstruck. One line, uttered by the professor after his young date throws a glass of water in his face and leaves in a rush, "Kiss my aspirations, the heighth of cleverness," always has us looking at each other with feigned disgust.

Axe me about it after I calm down.

mikehalloran wrote:Oxford commas

I like Oxford commas!

The “pussy” stuff goes. Sorry. Start a forum if that’s a problem.

I use whenever: whenever I need a word meaning "At those specific points in time". Is that not cool?

stubbsonic wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 2:22 pm I use whenever: whenever I need a word meaning "At those specific points in time". Is that not cool?

Whenever I go to the park, I feel happy.

When I went to the park yesterday, I felt happy.

Whenever I went to the park yesterday... I have just used poor grammar.

Here's the poop: https://lemongrad.com/when-vs-whenever/ ... 0like%20it.

Adding "In Terms Of" to every other sentence when a simple preposition, like "of", or no prepositions at all would mean the same thing.

Starting every answer in an interview with "So,"

So, in terms of intolerance, I could care less.