Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

In fact, both were e-mails, but the one to the St. Paul Pioneer Press was
printed in its "Letters to the Editor" section. It is currently available on
the Internet under the title "Humane treatment" at
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/7608339.htm

I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making some
kind of notes in his diary. To my surprise he wrote something like "done @
noon 1967". I thought the @ sign (which BTW is in my native Polish called
"malpka"= little monkey) is pretty recent. Does anybody know ...

In the lyrics to "Let's roll", Neil Young calls out to "Goin' after
Satan / On the wings of a dove". I was wondering about how idiomatic
this "wings of a dove" image sounds to native speakers, since I read /
heard it in a number of different contexts. Is it a common phrase? And

The age old discussion of commercialism during the holiday season.  As
near as I can tell:
Christmas comes to us from the Old English.  Xmas supposdedly comes to
us from the Greek (chi being the X)  So the Greek word for Christ is

Is it possible to explain the difference between these three adverbs?
If that is difficult, maybe it is possible to specify whether these are
interchangeable in the following sentences (taken from text-books):
1) His students have made good progress lately.

Smoking is stupid, but a Zippo lighter is cool.  A disposable?  Flick
that.
What does it mean by "A disposable?  Flick that."
Charlize pitched a fit in an L.A. bank 7 years and was spotted by a

Will you paraphrase " well out on the highway" with other words ?
Before it was even light, we were well out on the highway. l I could
heel the uninterrupted roll of the wheels.

I have a question about "half door" in the following text.
The refrigerator was a little half job with a tiny yellowish light like
a single bulb on a Christmas tree.
[omission}

You can read the newest article "Does PowerPoint Make Us Stupid?" at
either
http://tinyurl.com/2kyh8
or

Reading Michael Howard's political credo (I have copied it below, from
the BBC web site - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3361933.stm) I
am puzzled by an inconsistency.
The word "that" follows "I believe" in statements 4,6,15 and 16 but is

Hello, everyone:
Re: Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
Would appreciate any pointers on the CAPITALIZED terms. Sorry for the
lengthy list, pls pick up whatever iterms you wish to clarify, it'll

Please, can someone tell me why national honours in the UK like
knighthoods etc are called "gongs".  I always thought a gong was bell
to summon diners to their tables.
--

Silmä, kyrpä, suu, nenä, pillu, korva, vittu, perse,
jalka, mulkku, käsi.
Pick up the words that refer to female and male
organs! (In random order: arse, ear, cock, mouth,

I know there are those who find pleasure and amusement in such Canadian
place names as Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw.
But what do you call the people who hail from these places? Until
yesterday I hadn't given it a thought, but then came news of a major