Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2010

I need advice what to say to somebody who is supposed to be
providing help but instead has been showing me lack of respect.
Below are some ideas what I might say:
Version #1:

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The mistakes I found are circled. Did I miss any?
(That remins me of one of the answers to this riddle:

The other day I constructed what I thought was an original euphemism
for a trailer dweller viz. "denizen of the doublewide" but when I
googled the expression I found quite a few hits, almost all using it
in the sense that I intended.

What exactly is a _wishing_ bench?
I found:
http://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=29405
---

A week or so ago I was down at the seafront at Seaford in East Sussex,
walking along the promenade, when I came across a seafront food-seller;
basically a tiny caravan with an awning and a few tables and chairs laid out
to its side.  There was a blackboard attached to the side ...

This sentence:
a. Those are badly constructed bridges.
could only mean:
a1. Those bridges were constructed badly.

I read the following in an Indian newspaper online:
"Do you agree with Supreme Court comments about clubbing housewives
with prostitutes and prisoners?"
I could not for the life of me figure out what it meant until I read

"Pitoota" seems to be a distorted word.
What would that be?
---
[Vernon Little is suspected of homosexual practices with a known

1. Michael slammed into the brick wall, sliding down to the ground.
2. Michael slammed into the brick wall and slid  down to the ground.
Are both OK in writing, or only 2?
Thanks.

When I had my lunch in KFC the other day, I overheard a question like
"Is it good?" by a native speaker, who wanted to check if the table
was reserved by the people sitting next to it.
Now I would like to know if it's right to ask "Is it good?' in this

Is there a linguistic term for words like "gotcha"?
It's part contraction, part slang, part abbreviation. My American
Heritage dictionary calls it a contraction of "got you".

What
"screen-reflector"
are we talking about?
Seems to be a flyer, anyway.

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Is there a difference between the meanings of these sentences:
1-In his later unpublished essays, he talks about his happy childhood
memories.

I always thought the expression was "whaling on".
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB128001605680520665.html?mod=googlenews_wsj