Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2007

An author wrote "He was born on May 25, 1725."
I changed it to "He was born May 25, 1725."
The author didn't like it, and insisted that I change it back, which I
did.

Smilax, a.k.a. catbrier, has nothing
to do with smiling, but is used to make
a drink by Fitzpatrick's Herbal Health,
Britain's "Last Original Temperance Bar".

http://goofythroat.info/mesotheliomagirl15  - You got to see this
video as this 15 yr old guzzles a quart down her throat then takes it
straight in the a.s.
like me sideways I'll eat you out yahdah yahdah yahdah

"40 acres of mostly undeveloped land is probably worth millions to
whomever ends up controlling it."
This right? Should be 'whoever', right? 'Whoever' is the subject of the
fragment 'whoever ends up controlling it'. Or am I mistaken?

The lyric of the WWI song "How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm"
has the line "Once a farmer, always a jay/Farmers always stick to the
hay".
I had to look up this meaning of "jay" -- unsophisticated/rural --

In a biography of Harper Lee she's called "Miss Frippy Britches"
in her tomboy youth. Has anyone else heard this term?

I am not sure what
"I do ye to wit"
means in the first stanza. Definitely, an archaic expression.
Also, what could "flame-lap" mean in the second?

http://hootys.blogspot.com/ - Free Downloads! Amazing Deals.

I am delighted to read members of this discussion group's cabal
denying the very existence of a cabal. Their very denial confirms
this cabal cadre.
Much like a defendant standing trial for some crime, these cabal

In Auden's poem Praise of Limestone,
http://www.gracechurchamherst.org/in_praise_of_limestone.htm
he starts out with,
"If it form the one landscape that we, the inconstant ones,

What is the difference between "it will be a pleasant drive" and
"it will be pleasant driving"?  
And you don't say "it will be a pleasant driving"?

I'm watching 'Rumpole of the Bailey' on DVD, and Rumpole's unctuous
head of chambers is "Soapy Sam" Ballard. Does Soapy refer to his
moral cleanliness or his habit of mounting on a soapbox?

I have always understood that "lol" in internet forums etc. means
"laughing out loud" (or similar), often used to express derision or
contempt. But now I often seem to see it used in contexts where no
laughter, derisive or otherwise, appears to be intended. I really

Dr Charles White
Dr White lived at Sale Priory on Dane Road. with Joseph Bancroft, he
founded Manchester Royal Infirmary. When Bancroft died, he turned to
one Hannah Beswick for finance for this hospital and she lent him

I want to start a website on product reviews based on consumer
feedback. I want a name which is short and easy to say (no hard
sounds). I have been selling online for years and so many people ask
for consumer advice (eg what is that product really like?), that it