Discussion Groups / English Usage / December 2003

Can the following description be written better?  Can it be improved and
how?
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Actually, we took the same lift up to the floor where our classroom is.

From an article at www.voa.gov (Voice of American): ... He said there
are even signs that al-Qaida may once again be plotting to use
aircraft as weapons.
Why are 'aircraft' in its singular form and 'weapon' in its plural

Again from VOA,
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=5A41F0F2-F817-46F3-92E74DF6F7AF6F07&
title=Wildlife%20Experts%20Try%20to%20Bring%20Back%20Once%20Plentiful%20Osprey%2
0Hawks%20to%20US%20Midwest&catOID=45C9C787-88AD-11D4-A57200A0CC5EE46C&categoryna
me=Science%20%26%20Tech
.. ...

(Please respond without consulting a dictionary: my intention in posing
this question is to establish a view of the most usual spelling of the
word.)
Someone you confide in is your ... what? (word beginning with c)

What books would you recommend to learn more about the modal verbs? I've
written here, on alt.english.usage and on uk.culture.language.english; I've
read tons of messages in the archive of this newsgroup (particularly a
thread of 137 messages, http://snipurl.com/3kvp, recommended by ...

In researching an alternate career as a professional mourner, I've
come across the myriologue, an extemporaneous song, said to derive
from the Greek goddess of fate or death. As far as I know these
were Nemesis and Circe - is there a goddess I've been overlooking?

There is a code of colours, but I guess it's a bit different in every
language.
In my own language, Italian, I can say,  for instance "She sees life
through pink lenses", meaning she is an optimist!

  At <http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English> it
is asserted that the words and phrases in the left column
below, all commonplace in American English, were formerly,
but no longer are, current in England.  Could a.u.e.ers

I am trying to collect forms of greetings in English. I would be glad to
 read native speakers' contributions, comments, warnings etc in
connection with this.
And a question: do you ever use the form "good day". If so, in what

These must seem like stupid questions to most of you, but I would just like
to expand my knowledge in the English language. I would really like to know
if there are any forms of reference or authoritive rules to state how
abbreviations may be used. If someone could point me to a web ...

Once upon a 12/25/03 10:32 PM, in the land of
vunlfk5ppc1tad@corp.supernews.com, the very good"Mark Brader" from
<msb@vex.net> wrote:

I can't think of the term for someone who is on the board of, say, a
non-profit organization, but doesn't have a specific title, such as
"President" or "Communications Director" or "Finance Director". Isn't
there one?

Methings "duh" is English spelling for
Russian "da" (yes!)...

It looks like we'll get through the first decade of this century (and probably
the second) without the decade being given a name.

If there exists a 100% logical version of English(or any language)
which 1)Uses perfect definitions such "Atheist, noun, not a theist"
instead of "Atheist, noun, somebody who believes bla bla bla"(or
needn't be defined at all for the same reason as "unbuild" needn't),