A site to help make English grammar more understandable without dumbing down either its significance or its usage.
The last day of baseball, still the national pastime even though NASCAR and football, brutal sports, have edged the boys of summer in popularity. Baseball is now and forever will be the most lyrical and folkloric of all sports. Who hasn’t heard or read the poem about "Mighty Casey"? But I had the honor and [...]
Just a few minutes ago as I flipped over to ESPN to catch the Phillies-Braves baseball game, the announcers turned the discussion to the Sunday altercation between San Diego Padre [tag]Milton Bradley[/tag] and an umpire, which umpire has since been suspended. Referring to the umpire, commentator [tag]Orel Hershiser[/tag] said what got the ump suspended was not just [...]
[tag]Jenni Carlson[/tag], a columnist for The Oklahoman in Stillwater, Okla., home to Oklahoma State, finds herself under fire for running an article critical of the football team’s deposed quarterback. Carlson evidently said the quarterback’s demotion was due to mental attitude rather than physical skills. This caused football coach [tag]Mike Gundy[/tag] to denounce her and call [...]
Answer: When you’re sitting at a bar having lunch and a loudmouth next to you is trying to score on the woman half his age next to him. His English was grammatically fine, but I felt sorry for the young woman’s having to endure all his literate and literal nonsense. Solution: Don’t eat lunch at bar counters; take [...]
I swore I wasn’t going to bring up the topic of Miss Teen South Carolina’s bumbling question response, in which she concocted the NotPhrase U.S. Americans and generally managed to show an ignorance not only of English usage but also of world history. To wit: I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do [...]
In court testimony, New York Knicks General Manager [tag]Isiah Thomas[/tag] answered a question about the use of the word bitch in descriing or addressing a black woman. Basically, he testified that it was less egregious if a black man used the "B" word on a black woman than if a white man did. Now, to [...]
I have to apologize for my inactivity on the blog here, but I’ve been on a quick but arduous jaunt to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. It was in the latter city that I heard an utterance of "mines," confirming my fears that this vermin has infested the entire country. In America, grammar does indeed suck, [...]
While I was driving to lunch, I turned on ESPN radio when two sports jocks were discussing some now-long-forgotten topic, but one interchange stands out even after the topic has been forgotten. Sports jock number one complained about "hyperbole" on a certain sports topic. A few minutes later, his partner lamented the "hyperbosity" in sports talk. Now, [...]
The basic problem with people’s learning English, even those born in an erstwhile English-speaking country such as the United States, is that they no longer learn their grammar and spelling through reading great works of literature and doing rigorous classroom exercises but through media and fast food exposure. Maybe I’ll call my book Fast Food English [...]
My new word dooficity is a natural derivative of doofus/doofae (singular and plural). It refers to the utterances and general thinking (oxymoron?) of doofae. Who are the doofae subject to uttering doofisms (another word of mine)? Politicians, actors, celebrities and the like, plus anyone who actually pays attention to these people and what they say and believe [...]