Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2010

Are such "Don't go ... " constructs such as
"Don't go mixing me up"
still current?
I don't think I've heard it in quite a while.

"She floundered  for something more to say"
does it mean
"she made an awkward effort at saying something more?"
----

I found a sentence in a dictionary:
"The book was received with adulation by critics"
But I think it should be
"The book received adulation by critics"

Does
"brownstone house"
also cover houses with the facade in red brick, not in real stone?
It seems so:

Anna Vassilieva, interviewed on PBS newshour, said of Medvedev:
Russian president is a representative of a younger generation, who is
a son of professors, who is a lawyer by training, and a person who not
once mentioned his commitment to democratic values.

"she mooned over her fingernails"
does it mean
"she played absentmindedly with her fingernails, or looked dreamily at
them?"

Is this sentence correct:
a. She has got me with nothing to win and nothing to lose.
If it is, what does it mean?
Does it mean:

The reading I have in this context for
"except in as much as"
is
"except with regard to"

I have seen some sentences that include "perfect progressive tenses"
and I am absolutely puzzled.
Please help me.
In advance thank you for your replies.

Assuming this is a business event in the 90s, would you take "dress"
to mean 3a or 3b?
--
dress

From the BBC news site, in covering the Queen's arrival at Halifax on a 9-day
tour of Canada (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10437025.stm):
"She told the assembled guests, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper and members of the indigenous Mi'kmaq population:"