Discussion Groups / English Usage / December 2009

The Journey towards Surgical cure is not always a pleasant one.
Apprehension towards pain and post-operative morbidity and
complications are always on the minds of the patient and his near and
dear ones. It is a physical, social and financial burden on all

It annoys me (and, no doubt, many others) to hear people say "the
lunch will begin at 12:00 pm" or "the contest closes at 12:00 am".
Whilst the intent of the writer is usually apparent from the context,
this increasingly-common practice should be condemned. For one thing,

Hi group,
about the title of Jack London's story "To Build a Fire".
Question: Is "build a fire" idiomatic? It strikes me as odd, I would
have expected "to make a fire" or "to light a fire". Is it perhaps an

"call in for"
Is this indeed only BrE?
Also, does it mean Ryder was going from his own room to the dining
room and entered for a quick while in Sebastian's room to fetch him to

Is this
"to draw the woods"
an idiom related to hunting?
Meaning?

A highly educated American (a professor of philosophy, no less) wrote
recently about something that might 'get your rankles up'. A Google
turns up several hundred other raised rankles. Are they idiomatic in
American English or are they simply thinkos for raised hackles? When

"appreciable distance"
does this mean
"short distance?
Is this a special usage?

I hope this isn't considered too off-topic here, but as banking
methods and citizenship laws seem to be current topics, I hope I will
be forgiven. I have asked elsewhere, and have drawn blanks.
There is a well-known poem by James Ball Naylor (1860-1945) which

If I say that I want to initiate an agreement, "effective at midnight on
February 1, 2010", does that mean the midnight between January 31st and
February 1st, or the midnight between February 1st and February 2nd?  For
the sake of clarity, one could probably say "at 00:00 on ...

"slopped" does it imply casualness in pouring?
Also, I'm not getting the part on "so that it could not be set down
until empty." How does it really look like?
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"his hair (was) on end"
does it mean
"spiky, raised?"
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I havea coworker whose mother died.  I should email her and express my
sympathy.  But I don't know what to say or say somehing out of
(american) norm.  Can you help me with a few simple sentences?
Thanks.

1) I don't just love this movie.
2) I just don't love this movie.
What I understand is as follows:
in 1),  "just" is the same as "only" in usage,

Heard in the wild: UKnians (BBC)
(never heard it used before)
It is so rare apparently that Google
flags it is a spelling error.

"Blowing off?" As in making him lose temper?
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One of the "Real Housewives of Orange County" is officially a wanted
woman -- accused of blowing off a judge in a million dollar legal