Discussion Groups / English Usage / June 2007

I'm not fond of using phrases with quotes. Does anyone have ideas of
another way of expressing: create "on the fly"?
Thanks ahead of time.

Sometimes I hear "I forget" meaning "I forgot", usually in the meaning
of "I don't remember anymore", not "it slipped my mind".
Are those two interchangeable, or is there a difference in their
meaning?

An animal stotts (or pronks) when it bounds with all
four feet off the ground at once. I've never done it,
just wanted to share my new word.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-sto1.htm

What's the difference between
 homogeneous    and
 homogenous
Is one British the other American? Is one plain wrong?

I have visited Switzerland several times and have observed that its
towns and cities are full of shops selling watches and clocks, but until
now I had never noticed the way in which many of the upmarket brands are
advertised. Would you want to buy a "timeless watch"?

I'm a shoes enthusiast.. Recently, i found a new good website www.ebaysoho.com
who sell many famouse shoes,like Puma,Nike,LV,Prada,Gucci. All goods
looks nice, so wonderful. IF interedted, please get on and have a
look. Great surprise will be waiting for you.

"I am too poor to hire a babysitter." can be transformed into "I am so
poor that I can't hire a babysitter." "I was too poor to hire a
babysitter." can be transformed into "I was so poor that I couldn't
hire a babysitter." Then, how about "I have been too poor to hire a

The deer are being a pest, coming round eating the petunias
just when the flowers are looking nice.
I made a mixture of rotten smelling eggs, crushed garlic, red chili
pepper flkaes and coal tar shampoo.

that Robert Burns was 5 cents and King Edward 5 for 23 cents?

I told you we were cousins. I caught part of
"Journey of Man" on PBS today. It was very
interesting and I'll wager that my Southern
Baptist cousins are freaking out over it.

A friend recently passed through Janesville, Wisconsin while on
vacation. He snapped this photo to commemorate his time there. I
assume it was the high point. We've been debating the meaning ever
since.

Re: "taking prow"
Could it mean "taking courage?"
------
Your shutting up the house and taking prow

I read following in another discussion group:
They are active and buying media. That's definitely up my alley.
but cannot find definition of 'up one's alley' in the dictionaries.
Thanks for teaching.

I was searching for an antonym of "exceeds" today, and
I was blowed if I could think of a nice straightforward single
word. Eventually I settled for "falls short of".  I suppose
for certain usages "wants" might be appropriate, but it

What would "carded" mean here?
------
[She's helping her lover who's going hunting and fishing]
[...]