Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

Hi, folks.
"It -that SCO filed the suit against linux- diverted the attention of the
entire IT industries" C-Net said.
I think the sentence means that the suit _attracted_ the attention of the

We eventually reached a reasonable understanding of the 'Madness of King
George' / 'Madness of George III' issue as related to transpondian
understanding.
Now the Radio Times (in its 'Movie Trivia' section) is claiming that <

It seems strange to me that just this year I notice that song.  I think this
is  starting in the third year in which the show "Monk" has played, but I
only started hearing the song in the promos for this season.  The lyrics are
captivating, as is the song style.

My nerves aren't good enough to post this in that awful wandering
thread supposedly about electric kettles.
Think water, Skitt, think fish. See
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22roiling+water%22+fish

At the web site of the Los Angeles Fire Code
www.lafd.org/code.htm
"To instead search the entire Los Angeles Municipal Code, click here."
--

Does this sound right to you:
"This is the same problem as arises if we attempt XYZ"
I thought it was right but rereading, it sounds like "arises" is missing a
subject or something...

Is the following sentence grammatically correct?
"It is basically my trucks on which my business depends."
Or should I write it as follows?
"They are basically my trucks on which my business depends."

Does "skive off", meaning "to evade work", come from the same
Scandinavian "skive" that means "to pare leather"?

When did African-American mothers first come up with names like Latisha,
Lakisha, Tawana (sp.?), Latoya, Jamal, Denzel and Darah? Condoleeza Rice looks
like she's in her 40's and she's one of the oldest people I know of with an
African-American first name, but I'm guessing that they ...

An author submitted a text that mentioned
        L.L. Bean
(an outdoors-themed clothing company). Editing for print, I first changed it to
the standard American form:

In names with initials and abbreviations, such as J. R. R. Tolkien,
Mr. J. Cale, J. Edgar Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, should there be a
space or not after the dots?
Also, can I omit the dots?

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0104/29curriculum.html
--john

I came upon the word "pigsney" while surfing my OED Online which is
defined as "one particularly cherished; a darling pet."  The OED says
that it has  a dialect usage, Does anybody know what dialect still
uses the term?

When you are writing a phrase that would usually end in a colon, but is
also a question, which symbol is best to use? For example:
    Which of these items is the one you want?:
    A. Red

I am almost 3/4th the way though 'Brinkley's Beat'.  The man is a damn
good writter. His treatment of Theodore Bilbo is really excellent; his
creative juices were really flowing.  After reading this book, I will
read more by David Brinkley.  "Washington Goes to War" is said to be