Discussion Groups / English Usage / April 2010

Have you heard "to get to hug death by the neck?"
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Most people'll run from their own mother to get to hug death by the
neck. Theycant wait to see him. I guess that's what you think I'm

"he was carryin fire in a horn"
are we talking about a torch?
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[Dream]

1. Would to God someone would tell me the truth!
2. Would to God someone told me the truth!
Both correct?
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I'm really not sure what I think about this, given recent events - one
might wonder whose Jerusalem Obama might want to be in next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/politics/28seder.html?emc=eta1

seems that the paleo diet adherents, have started using "grok" as a
nym for the notional paleo hominid who only eats foods for which the
human digestive system & body-metabolism are optimized for through
evolution.  There  ==is== firm evidence that agriculture only goes

Hi!  I would like to know the pronunciation of a French word "tenez"
in "Tenez, voila votre billet."  If there is someone who is good at
French, please tell me how to pronounce the word.
Thanks a lot in advance.

A couple of years ago I cut down a very old thorn tree that had been
all but strangled by ivy, which had formed a cage of fat vines around
the trunk. One of these vines left the main ivy stem, did a loop-the-
loop, then rejoined the main stem about two feet higher up. I kept

Say a Mr Jones and a Ms Smith live together what order would their
names come in forming a designation for the family as a group?
 Smith-Jones family
 Smith & Jones family

BBCA is airing "The InBetweeners". (Season 1)  The characters are
sixth formers at a comprehensive near London.  Absolutely hilarious.
The characters wear school uniforms which, on some characters, are a
white shirt and a necktie as pictured here:

Beautiful image.
Now:
Which meanings of "reefs" and "racked" are we talking about?:-)
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At the end of a movie review in the ChriSci Monster:
 (Rated PG for some thematic elements and some brief mild
 language.)
I suppose "language" means taboo language, but that pregnant sense

In this case
"knockin around"
means "living," right?
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"land proved up on"
is this land to which they had documented rights?
Did a "section" have any definite size?
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"ever strata"
does he mean
"every stratum?"
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Does this
"new blades he drew blood invariably but kept at it"
mean
"[(doing it) with] new blades [comma?] he drew blood invariably but