Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2008

London has just elected Boris Johnson as mayor, and I find the
commentary interesting.
Johnson is often characterised as a "buffoon", and a number of
comments I've read have been along the line of "Well, he can't be

how are we

I'm from Denmark and I'm translating a song right now called "Blue
wind". But I haven't heard that expression before, and I'm not sure
what it means? I can't find it in any of my dictionaries. Google gives
236.000 results when I search for "Blue wind". But the results lead in

------
[Adam Ewing speaking]
(…) one fine day, a purely predatory world  shall  consume itself. Yes,
the devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost  is  the hindmost.

What is it like to go through life with an 85 IQ?  Based on some
examples I think it is not perplexing or frustrating---but that
instead the world looks like
a magical kingdom.  Examples:

What are the most consulted reference books
in your home lately?
Ours include the Movie Guide, Oxford Companion to English Literature,
French-English dictionary and several Gardening books.

I want to say something about some movies which have sold the most
tickets, can I say "the most selling-ticket movies"?
Thank you.

A simple question from the metricized world: If something is "thirty
miles off the coast", just how far away is it?
In the US (and to some degree in the UK, I guess), distances are
still habitually given in statute miles.  In international nautical

take two cocks in my mouth.Ernie
http://geocities.com/the_creamy_solution/3some.jpg

A 71 year old vagrant has been arrested in Seattle for begging, which
is outlawed in the state.
Carrying a pair of Swarovski binoculars and wearing only a yellow
dress and Gucci shoes, he claimed to be the reincarnation of God, on a

I wonder if there are any meanings for "jiffy" which could be
appropriate here, in "jiffying ocean"?
----
[Legend: Mankind lost the art of making fire and the Crow is sent to get

I have a feeling that media abuse the usage of Ms.
For example,  everybody in the US knows that Nancy Pelosi  is a married,
grandmother (and the speaker of the House).
I thought that she should be addressed as Mrs. Nancy Pelosi  rather than Ms.

Last night I dropped in on a programme called "The Big Bang Theory" (I
dropped out again soon afterwards).  One of the characters (an
American I suppose, though could be Canadian) said the words "apricot
yoghurt".  I'm used to the Leftpondian pronunciation of "yoghurt" with

I'm reading the novel "Last Rites" by Charles Patterson.
1. On page 135:  "I took two aspirin"
2. Then on page 137:  "The aspirins weren't doing any good".
Is no.1 a typo (missing "s") or is it correct, like  (to give an

Can you please tell me which of the followings are correct?
1. Vertical black line
2. Black vertical line.
Thanks