Discussion Groups / English Usage / December 2008

You know -- that cheap torch which never gives out enough light.
Those lightbulbs the janitor uses in the the hallway which make you
wonder if they were placed there by the "Equal Chances For Rapists And
Muggers" program.

Quote on a TV program about the "green" revolution, including wind
farms and research toward achieving one-hour conversion of biomass
to petroleum, on digital channel 7-2 just tonight:
(in a regarding a server farm in San Francisco, which has many

One of our Public Radio announcers always says, "This is xxxx, your NPR
neeewoooze station."
I thought it was just him, but a couple of weeks ago I noticed that
Krista Tippett, the host of "Speaking of Faith," told us that we were

I'm reading a smuggling in colonial British North America. Erving, a
shipowner, paid a fine to the customs official, and then turned around
and sued that official in a provincial court. He was awarded slightly
more than the fine he paid.  The case was appealed to Britain. Here is

Is
"need not"
in
"For now he need not feel that it so beat of its own accord"

Is a "rendered twice-over body"
a
"body which is folded over/bent"
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it is not dissimilar from the Elton John composition "Song For Guy"
it is not dissimilar to the Elton John composition "Song For Guy"
which is correct?

This
"would never come to any proof"
seems Shakespeare, but I don't get it in the context.
Could it be that:

I recently found out that “ballpark figure” as in the following means
“approximate figure.”
“If you can’t state exactly what the repairs will cost, can you give
us an approximate figure to go on?”

"Incoming Republican House Whip Eric Cantor with his wife of 19 years,
Diana, whom he met on a blind date, is his political opposite on
social issues."
-- Caption in the Washington Post

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__If a fire happens__, you will be responsible for leading all the
employees in your department through the emergency exits on the first
floor.

"out of the depth of his time"
seems quite profound and important (esp in this novel, in which time
is so important)
but I'm not sure I get it.

Hello!  Would someone please help me interprete the last sentence of
the following passage.  I suppose that ***they*** in the last sentence
refers to “Mistakes”, not “those manipulations.”   I wonder if I am
right or wrong, and why.

I heard on the radio someone using "architect" as a verb.  Instead of
design.

What kind of stroke would be involved here in
"you'k knock him on his a.s"
A punch or what?
Does it mean