Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

For your enjoyment I have created a
 Military Acronym Salad Slide Show
http://y23stockpic.free.fr/US_military_acronym_salad/index.html

Do I detect an increasing, and inappropriate, use of the ampersand in modern
English?
David.

I the book _A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian_ (fiction), the
following appears:
"It feels uncomfortable at first to step out of my soft-soled liberal
shoes into the stilettos of Mrs Flog-'em-and-send-'em-home of

Others can take it too.
I found it quite amusing and clever.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/26/nbritish126.
xml

I find the use of "Swallowing" right at the beginning of the enclosed
quotation a bit strange.
I'd have expected:
"Having being swallowed half an hour ..."

On behalf of a younger family member, I wonder
if languages other than English contain as many,
or indeed any, palindromic words (like racecar)
or sentences (like Madam, I'm Adam).

... in English dialects? How about in other languages?
In "layers and layers" and "hummers and hawers", I have:
[lEI@z] & [hOU@z] with triphthongs [EI@] & [OU@].
(The [E] in my triphthong is halfway between [e] and the [E] in "let")

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/ContrarianChronicles/
TechInvestorsStillBuyingTheHype.aspx
Tech investors still buying the hype - MSN Money

I am searching for a definition of a "contextual example." (Please
don't say "an example in context.)  ;-)
Also what is the rule for simple phrasing of a contextual example.
Jo

I'm still not sure what is the difference between the phrases "Thank
you to do something" and "Thank you for doing something". I would
appreciate if anyone can provide an explanation.
I'm a PhD student and neither I nor my supervisor is a native English

Yesterday morning on the BBC Radio 4 programme Today [sic!], one of the
presenters read out a piece to do with the feeling of satiety.  He
stumbled a bit on the word, pronouncing it something like "satiate-y",
but was quickly corrected by his colleague.

The coinage of "Phrasedick" appears to go back to Peter Tamony; see:
http://www.umsystem.edu/whmc/invent/3939P.html
Tamony, Peter (1902-1985), Collection, 1890-1985 (C3939)
"...Phrasedick, See Dick..."

I want to write a letter to an institute for nominating a person for
another person. How to write this?
Ex: I would like to nominate Mr. A ................. Mr. B. (how to
fill the blank)

Hi. Recently, I read on a newspaper that Roger Federer was 'all the
rage' to win the
Australian open. I thought that 'all the rage' meant only 'extremely
popular' or

In F. H. Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy I found two names which I
hesitate to pronounce:
(Sir Thomas) Asshe (of) Asshawe (Hall)
(Mr). Havisham