Dept. of Public Grammar

Etymology and entomology are two words that belong together in the same sentence, because sometimes words really bug the hell out of me. This is a list of some of those bugs, a kind of entomology of words, metaphorically speaking.

From: Bob M_____

>> I hate spam! Who doesn't? I feel uncomfortable building a site for spammer. [sic] But times are tight these days, and turning down the site would be unwise financially. Have any of you have [sic] this dilemma? Have you been asked to do a site that bothered you ethically? <<

Yes. It was a site for someone who was actually selling copies of an e-book I wrote, without my permission. I could not ethically do this because I hate plagiarists. I contacted their ISP and the site was blocked, however. Other than that, I occasionally get requests for adult sites. I do not like to create sites about sex because I first need to understand the product or service. [I-Design Newsletter]

What is it that you don't understand about sex, Bob? Maybe I can send you some written instructions with accompanying photos. Oh, and please explain how it is that you managed to write a book without your own permission. I'm very interested in odd phenomena like that.

An [sic] tech conference organizer waxes ecstatic over the gathering of tech-heads from the trenches that are creating the future. [Wired]

Wait a minute! Our future is being created by trenches? I wonder how that works.

Woman Accused Of Killing Man With Hatchet.

[Pgh. Channel]

Well, okay. But what if she was justified? I mean, let's get the facts straight. What was he going to do with that hatchet anyway?

RealNetworks makes available the source code for sending video and audio over the Internet to other software and hardware makers. [ZDNet]

Seems like a fairly limited application, to send video and audio to other software and hardware makers.

From a jokes newsletter listing a long series of things we learn from movies: "If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noises in their most revealing underwear."

I have to whole-heartedly agree. Not only does it look great, but it's always good advice to investigate strange noises that your underwear makes--especially when staying in a haunted house.

"...subterranean deep bunker beneath the surface of the earth." (Wolf Blitzer, in an interview with George Galloway, British Parliament Member)

Nice one, Wolfie

"[Gweneth] Paltrow again imitates Englishness by sucking in her suave cheeks." (Richard Corliss in a review of the film Possession in Time magazine, Aug 26, 2002).

I wonder which cheeks he means. Actually, I guess it doesn't really matter. Either results in the same affect.

"The infamous [Northwest Passage] route runs below Iceland and Greenland, through the Arctic archipelago in northern Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans." (CNN Quick News)

I didn't know that the northern coast of Alaska was between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Well, actually, I guess it is, if you want to be literal. But that isn't what they meant.

"Free-speech advocates hail a federal judge's decision to reverse a California prison policy barring inmates from receiving material printed from the Web via snail mail.' (Hotwired)

I didn't know you could use snail mail to print from the web.

A lot of those young men and women are very, very young. (A newsman on MSNBC.)

Well, of course. What would they be? Old?

Youse gotta be careful with the decision-making that you make. (Bill Cowher, Pgh Steelers Head Coach, in a television interview)

Youse certainly do.

In-Flight Cell Phone Ban Approved by House
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a bill would make permanent the long-standing ban on in-flight cell phone calls by the FAA and FCC.
Slashdot

I wonder why they want to ban the FAA and the FCC from making in-flight cell phone calls.

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