Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

Could you please help me with editing or rewriting (if you think I
should do so) this letter which is very important to my future. I
appreciate your help in advance.
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I wonder if you can help me, please.
I am sending to two groups which may cause a frown or two, because I realise
that to cross is not smiled upon...but my query seems relevant to both, so I
trust that I may not be the cause of strife...;-)

Searching for the origin of "once bitten, twice shy" leads me to
think there was an older phrase, "once caught, twice shy" which,
maybe between 1850 and 1870, was modified to "once bit, twice shy."
I tried to add this to the current thread for that topic but was

Interesting line from one of the announcers on the BCS football game
on TV tonight.  He was talking about Troy Smith, quarterback for the
Ohio State team, and said that one of Troy's mentors when he was
growing up was "his Midget football coach".

Most of u guys must have heard of China,
and maybe some of u have been here before?
so what do you think of it?
PS:NO politics,just private feelings.Thanks.

Given cheers derived from Anglo-Norman "chere" meaning face, could
someone reflect on whether the hindi equivalent of face (chehra) and
the word cheers share the same root ?
Cheers,

"Would you like to build the paperless office? Are you sick of
disorganization and confusion about what docs to keep and for how
long?"
ATTEND THE PAPERLESS OFFICE TELESEMINAR OFFERED BY THE

1. How common was the word "trek" before the debut of Star Trek in
1966?
2. Did you ever hear the phrase "odd couple" prior to the premiere of
Neil Simon's play in 1965?

We are all familiar with performers who change their names to be more
marketable or who record under different names to skirt contract
problems.  There are, however, performers who use different names for
different kinds of music.  I invite people to tell us of some of their

When does a chubby become a woody?

Checking around with people I know, we'd all say
  I'm going to listen to the radio
in preference to
  I'm going to listen to radio

This means "at least 75-years old," isn't it?

Thank you.
Marius Hancu

What is the American term for stands that hold up ropes or tapes (for
forming lines)? I think they are called queue stands in British English,
but "line stand" is apparently not the American English counterpart.

Part of my home work is a Novel Reader Response Log. I need to write a
letter telling the author how I feel about his book. This is my first
try. I have never written a letter in my life so any help would be
appriciated. Name of of the book is: Alien Nation: Common Sense About

 I run across this on one investment web site,
Each ETF come in only one class of shares. Each ETF is essentially an
index fund tied to a singular market index (usually a single style-box,
country or industry), and is a no-load fund which trades like a stock