Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

I would like you to paraphrase the following sentence.  Particularly,
I would like to know how you paraphrase "a soft touch" and "hard luck
cause".
   He was a soft touch for whatever hard luck cause came his way.

I hadn't realized quite how much of my reading ability isn't so much in
interpreting printed words as in interpreting patterns.
I usually get a large wall calendar every year from a friend in
Australia, and every year I put it up in my office. This year, I rapidly

I came to an obituary article for G Simmons, in which there is a
sentence
I don't know where to put a break in.
See the following.

I don't remember the rules for these very well. Can someone tell me which, if
any, of these constructions is incorrect, and why?
1. We cannot but do this.
2. We cannot help but do this.

The news channels are currently reporting the earthquake in Haiti,
and can't seem to decide if the "prince" in the capital's name takes
the French or English pronunciation.
Anyone know which is used locally?  (Both?)

Which meaning of "shoals" could be in effect here in "shoals of hair?"
---
[Hagar, hugely troubled by her lover deserting her, goes through a
shopping spree, then arrives home thoroughly drenched by a downpour]

Is this the correct use of suspension hyphens?
"School-, college- and work-based partnership agreements..."
It looks unusual, but maybe I'm just not used to seeing it.

Any reasons for "taking" instead of "take" in the following?
---
This is probably the closest anyone has come to taking part in someone
else's

This item in the Guardian caught my eye:
http://www.guardian.co.
uk/uk/2010/jan/10/heathrow-robbery-trial-jury-twomey
or

Sent them some money to help out in Haiti.

Translating the texts for an exhibition of prints by Dürer (mit seiner
Leihwagenfirma), I searched the net for canonical English titles of the
works. I wonder how the engraving almost always known as "The Deformed
Landser Sow" (born in the village of Landser in Alsace) became "The ...

What does this sentence mean?  i heard that in an American movie.
Thanks

Given my age, I sometimes browse the "Deaths" Page in RSC (Royal Society
of Chemistry" News. It seems extremely insensitive, if accurate,  to
find several people denoted as, for example, "formerly Associate
Professor Emeritus", when the only reason why they are "formerly" is

Some rules to keep
in mind when using the Queen's English:
1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

Today I'm translating an article that builds on the queer theory
formulated by Lee Edelman in "No Future". That book contains some
wonderful sentences:
"The promise of such a 'fatality' animates language _from the outset_ in