Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

When executing formal documents, the UK queen writes in the plural
"We, Elizabeth the Second, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland..."
Church of England Bishops and Archdeacons do a similar thing:

I heard this in the "Sex and The City" TV series:
Carrie: "I can't believe it's been so long. I've been meaning to call
you. I've been..."
Miranda: "*f.cking your brains out?*"

Any justification for having the past "went" followed by past perfect
"had done had been" in the following:  
-----
She went, numbed and terrified, to the Mother Superior of her

From the current _Newsweek_:

From a college textbook:
" ... that the average teacher spends
between 45 and 50 hours per week in
school-related work, with the average

Maybe you all know about this already, but I just found an on-line
version/transcription of the "1811 Dictinary of the Vulgar Tongue" at:
  http://www.harvestfields.netfirms.com/etexts/31/00.htm
That site seems to contain quite a lot of "ebooks and etexts", of

Is it still called "leather" if the skin involved is from a human?

Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp
I'm french and looking for the traduction in french for "chinks out"
I absolutely need the answer for tommorrow morning !
Thanks a lot !

Bun Mui is a group?  I don't get what this theory is.  Maybe she's
just a really dumb Asian.
Comments...?

Has anyone heard of a tazo ?
I believe that a tazo is a small plastic disk used for model making,
skimming, or collecting.
I cannot find "tazo" in a dictionary.

Once in a while, I get the impression the dictionaries miss
something.
 During our expedition to the interior, the harbour of
 Reykjavik had become populous with new arrivals. First of

I wonder why it is that I rarely see very long sentences in modern
literature. Could it be that today's reader just can't comprehend
them in their totality. What skills did the people of yesterday have,
that I don't seem to have today ? Less distractions, perhaps ?

I have to use the plural for wharf, and my gut reaction was to use
"wharves".  Thinking of it, though, I realised that my mind's ear is
hearing "wharfs".
Burchfield (_New Fowler's_) and Collins list both forms, with no

" U.S. National - AP
Drunken Driver Told to Carry Coffin Photo    
Wed Jan 14, 8:41 AM ET  Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
BUTLER, Pa. - A woman who was drunk when she killed a man in a head-on

Hi  everybody,
what do you think of the following sentence I've heard on stage in
London (all native speakers of British English).
Situation: A guest has just finished his soup, and the waiters takes