English, in particular, is malleable and accumulative in that it picks up and adds words from other languages quite readily. As non-native English speakers learn the language, they bring along vestiges of their own language and suddenly you have the word "vuvuzela" incorporated into usage, rather than "plastic horn" or some, more pedestrian, word or phrase. This is an ongoing reality to be celebrated, not fretted over. Vuvuzela is, in fact, a great word. It's a better word. It's alliterative. It has panache.
Though English grammar is often represented by grammarians as rigid and clear and "right," the reality is that our grammar is inconsistent and full of logical holes. There are as many exceptions as there are rules. Ultimately the greater concern of those of us who do care about usage and rightness and not-so-rightness is consistency and awareness. If you're using a word or phrase, or choosing to spell or capitalize or punctuate, in an idiosyncratic or rule-bending way, do you know what you're doing, and will you do it consistently. If the answer is yes, then you're developing a style, and you should "have at 'er."
As an English teacher people seem to be self-conscious about how they speak and write when I'm around. I don't like it. Today a parent came in to the office to drop off a baby ad for the yearbook, for her son. On the envelope she wrote Baby Add for ... . When she handed it to me, she looked at it again and said "Oh, I guess that would be with only one 'd'." I smiled and said that it was pretty clear what she meant.
I meant that, but there's not much I can do for a person when they become self-conscious about something like this because of someone else's presence. I don't know what I'm asking for here. I guess it's my bane to appear as some kind of dour-faced, nit-picker, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on an error and mock it mercilessly. Well, that's only partly true. I'll let you determine which part.
Ride report:
in: -26'C wind 15 ks N
out: -24'C wind 15 ks N
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