Spike, I'm with you on that one. It bothers me every time I hear it.

But actually it's worse than you say: Not only is there the fact that one thing can't be in order, there's also that the sentence is missing a couple words. "Your call will be answered in the order IN WHICH it was received" -- that's what I keep wishing they'd say (so I could bitch only about the other thing).

Why they don't adopt the obvious "calls are answered..." approach that you mention. It's not only correct, it's easier and faster to say.

Apologies for picking nits among the nit pickers, but this relatively new (at least to my ear) habit of reducing "a couple of [whatever]" to "a couple" really gets under my skin. I presume it arises because in casual speech "a couple of" gets slurred into "a couplah," which then gets understood by the listener as simply "couple."

(The fact that David Foster Wallace used "couple" in this way doesn't make me like it any better.)

My manual paper-based dictionary (copyright 1980!) says that “couple” is now often used without the “of”.

I see that Wiktionary says: My own sense is that I don't even hear it when it's used in colloquial speech, but that when I encounter it in writing it feels careless or worse. (If DFW had only used it in IJ I wouldn't have been bothered. But he used it in his essays as well.)

That's one I rarely type, but I was being lazy and hurried while hunting for keys on the phone. I agree, it is wrong to elide the "of"... and a dictionary's claim that that formation is now often used is unavailing as contrary evidence. Anyway, I apologize.

Lol, apologies are entirely unnecessary. It's just fun to debate these things.

Huh, didn't know that. I thought you could say "a couple words" like you could say "a few words".

7/11

I want some when I'm in a bad mood.

Or, it's a holiday flavor.

For your loved ones.

That's funny. Don't have a photo, but used to work at a hamburger joint with a milkshake mixer. It wasn't working - i.e. it was "out of order". So the manager (boy, I hate taking orders from someone a lot dumber than I am) put a sign on the mixer:

OUT OF BUISNESS

http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_...ealth_benefits
There's no way that apostrophe usage is correct, right? Maybe if I point it out to them they'll give me a full ride scholarship.

I think that's the plot of How High, right? And yeah, bad apostrophe, bad

The only apostrophe I see is in this line:

Harvard's FREE E-mail Newsletter


I don't see what's wrong with it there. Possessive, right?

"saunas'"

It seems to me to be more of a singular versus plural problem. Is that the issue you saw?

Ahh, Bach!

LDO.

It should be sauna's.

The word right before it is "a" ffs! Come on, Harvard!

Well, the usual apostrophe usage issue is an extraneous apostrophe (here comes an "s"!) rather than a misplaced one. I wanted to make sure that the person pointing out a mistake wasn't making one themselves...

I remember my grade 2 teacher put up a demonstration of wooden toys.
The sign read
"Wooden Toys's"

I also remember complaining to the coordinator about this terrible demonstration of english.
7-8 years old and already a grammar/punctuation nazi.
This is before the internet took over (Kidpix on the old Macintosh, and good ol' HTML websites)
sick lyf

This morning's Washington Post Sports section (Page D1) has a quote from Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan, discussing RGIII:

"...I should have went with my gut..."

I hear this kind of thing all the time, from people you would expect to have a command of the English language. This isn't even some weird, obscure point of grammar that some people might disagree on. It's just plain wrong and I'm amazed at how often I hear it. Often it's in the spoken word (e.g. "I shoulda went..." where "shoulda" is just a verbal elision of "should have").

This kind of thing hits my ear like a verbal speed bump. Am I alone in this? Are there any frequent readers of this thread who give this kind of thing a pass?

NO.

Definitely agree he could of worded that better.

Nice

I'm not sure I understand what it is that's bugging you about that quote.