The Tears, They Are A-Falling

Common versus Standard Usage


Ah, my Buckeroos, I try oh so hard to be pithy (but not so pithy to be hard). You might be surprised to know that in my "real" writing, I'm considered something of a minimalist.

Perhaps all the well-wishers here, conflicted as they are about performing abject acts of kindness such as acknowledging that yours truly may sometimes know "word stuff," just make me want to shed my kimono and engage in a giant word orgy.

Or perhaps I enjoy annoying those who prefer their words tight and their sphincters tighter. It's a yin and yang thing, is it not?

But after suckering you into that preamble, I shall attempt pith.

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Common usage = what people use every day

Standard usage = what (most) people expect in formal (i.e., published) writing; does not include every word or usage one finds in a dictionary

Example: the correct inflection of "forecast" is forecast/forecast/forecast. 

 "Forecasted" is dumb, though it currently is mercifully outnumbered by "forecast" 9:1 in English-language books, which means 10% of their writers should be vaporized to save the world supply of oxygen.


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>Well, that was an epic fail. I guess I love you all too much. Good news, though. I may not always be pithy, but I'm almost always . . .

(If I'm going to use a stupid ellipsis, I'm going to make it fucking count.)

As I lay me down to sleep (note if you will this rare moment when lay rightly means "to lie"), the tears will surely well up from my eyes as hot lead from a crucible before scattering in ash as dark as my cold black heart.

(That last part was just to tie this post to an awesome music video that I pray will haunt your dreams forever.)


Party on, Buckeroos.

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