Discussion Groups / English Usage / September 2008

I worked for a little while tonight in Google Books, looking for a
phrase mentioned elsewhere, when I suddenly noticed that the terrible
problem with the magazine dates may finally have been fixed. Not only
does the "About the book" section give the true issue date in a line

People I need some help here.
I am writing an email to my old master thesis supervisor.
It has been about 4 years and now I have some published work.
I am now writing him a letter to surprise him and I want to mention

Boinking was undertaken today at a new Japanese-style restaurant -
noodles, sushi, etc.  Very good it was, especially at the lunch special
price of £4.95 for two courses.  I was able to indulge my soup noodles
fixation.

OK.... I will admit it. Conservapedia is a guilty habit of mine. I
love it. But this is the first time I have seen them make a comment
that I think is a.u.e-worthy:
http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&curid=66589&
diff=524608&oldid=524598

There are two parties to an agreement. One agrees to pay the other a sum of
money to satisfy that other party's claims.
The parties then agree that after the money has been paid, the latter will
have no more claims against the former.

========
Each has surfaced in the present historical and critical study of the
C Minor Symphony --
in my account of the composer's struggles with the Beethovenian

How do u guys pronounce "san francisco" in fast tempo. The
dictionaries are not useful here.
Thanks, Pedro

Where is New Jeru?
I've seen it here:
http://raceandstuff.phpbb-host.com/ftopic12656-0-asc-15.php

The pronunciation of "lych" recently attracted the attention of the aue
panel. I don't recall that Lychrel numbers were mentioned.
Ah! I can hear you all clamouring, but what is a Lychrel number?
The most famous suspected instance of a Lychrel number is 196. For

I'm wondering why Microsoft Word's automatic grammar checker wants to
give the word "internet" a capital "I"?
Is Word right about this?
I can't think of a reason for "internet" to have a capital "I" myself.

I posted in another group that I'm looking for a French idiom that would be
the equivalent of the English phrase, "I haven't got a clue!"  I need the
phrase because I started a beginning French course this week.  I want to be
prepared for next week so that when the instructor ...

A report in the Houston Chronicle about recovery operations following
hurricane Ike includes this paragraph:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/casey/6006132.html
   The challenge now is to keep up this civility as the crisis adrenaline

Is it correct to formulate the question in this way?
"In Smallville, how much after did the events of Odyssey take place
after Arctic?"

"Johnson on pole after Montoya's lap disallowed"
I misunderstood this headline just as I misunderstood
an Australian announcer who said that "Yachtsmen are being pummelled
by large tumultous wives off the New South Wales coast."

In AusE (and for all I know, BrE) the word "better" has an idiomatic
usage.
Hubby announced today "Well I suppose I'd better go and hang those
things on the line while it's still sunny".