Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009

I've been known to trespass in pursuit of a good photo opportunity,
but this sign was an effective deterrent.  I am somehow not amazed
than no one has approached the owner of the house with suggestions of
usage corrections.

Today, I got sicken tired of it  
I've seen this twice on line, maybe from the same person, probably
not.
I don't know if he's kidding or serious.

How do you feel about the Bs here?
1.
(A) Climbing a mountain without a backpack is easy enough.
(B) It is easy enough climbing a mountain without a backpack.

My ethernet connection went kerflooie so I've been on the phone with
my provider's tech support.  (I ended up switching to a USB
connection, purchased a new ethernet card, and will install that
later)

Have you noticed how much "iconic" is used lately, such as in iconic
symbol, when logo used to be used in the past.
When the Air France plane disappeared in the Atlantic, and they found
the tail, the news referred to it as the iconic image in red, blue,

Tony got his spurtal out on Corrie yesterday and showed it to Maria -
she was *ever* so interested!
You can use it for stirring your porridge.
Nick from England

Alma Mater    Seems to be used to mean school song.  When did that
happen?  Or are all three sites, about the same high school, wrong?

Journalists drive me crazy.
The latest "gap-filler" in trendy use by journalists (you know ‹ the
people who should know better because they earn their living with
words) is "I mean".

In a context in which a tutor teaches only one student, is it common,
if correct, to call the student as a "private student"?
And if the tutor teaches a small group of students in their home, is
it common, if correct, to refer to the class as a "semi-private

In one of those irritating pauses between services during Murray's
match on Monday evening, a cameraman with nothing better to do
happened upon an aeroplane with curly wingtips banking against the
dying sun. Very pretty, marred only by the commentator's inane

According to the Wikipedia article "2-Nonenal",
  "The odour of substance percepts as orris, fat and cucumber."
  Is that a sentence?

Playing pool. "If either the loose ball or the cue ball end up within the
rack, then all balls will be respotted."
What's a loose ball?
--

Hello. I would like to ask which of the following is grammatically
correct:
"Could I ask where is the apple?"
"Could I ask where the apple is?"

Hi - could not understand what "brief brush" or "brush" means in the
following sentence, could anyone please help me out?  With great
thanks.
 On net, we expect a brief brush with deflation over the summer,

On a Sunday morning news show today, Bill Bennett said that Obama is
"uniquely qualified" to urge young men to be good fathers, becaues he
is an excellent husband and father.
Does Bill know what unique means?  Does he think Obama is the only