S. Worthen | Weblog

[Poll #1916978]

A few clarifications, following up on yesterday's poll.

[Poll #1805188]

Also on the subject of language recently: C wasn't familiar with the phrase "to phone in a performance". major_clanger assures me it's an Americanism.

I'd never encountered "the subject in hand" before, only "the subject at hand"; yet, from online discussions, the former is apparently much more widespread and more multinational than the latter.

[Poll #1804723]

There are lots of ways to fasten together sheets of paper into a coherent unit. The ones which particularly concern us today are staples, and an absence of fasteners. Glue may indicate a magazine, a journal, or a book. It is ambiguous as a binding material, I believe. Spiral bindings usually indicate high-end brochures, although they can also indicate small-circulation academic journals.

purple_pen asserts that if it's stapled, it's a magazine. Some of the free "newspapers" available on the Underground are held together by staples. Does that make them magazines? C. requested a poll on the subject, so here you are. The broad question of identifying types of media by their bindings is a rather interesting topic, but harder to squish into a single poll.

[Poll #1354399]

Ideally, there would be a "has" before "staples" in that poll question.

printperson has a question for all of you:

[Poll #1235829]

Inspired by rosamicula....

[Poll #1142482]

darktouch and I do not agree. Which of the following is most true?

[Poll #1088534]

Someone on a mailing list I'm on asserted that MySpace and Facebook are, both, equally narcissistic, and using them shows one to be a narcissist, more so than maintaining any kind of blog. Really? Truly?

[Poll #1079747]

I'm also a little confounded by the presumption of the virtuousness of online modesty inherent in the statement, whose author notes he does have a blog himself. By extrapolation, the most virtuous of online users are those who never leave a trace of themselves behind.

[Poll #1035880]

Over drinks and nibbles the other night, a newly-met woman looked at me in astonishment after hearing me talk for a few minutes. "A bit of...? You really have been spending time in England. What's the opposite of it?" The answer is, of course, "a lot of..." which is one of those phrases which sounds quintessentially American to my ears. But what do I know - my ears are often confused.

[Poll #791132]

For any needing context - "I've seen a bit of Canada." "I ate a bit of the steak, but there was too much."

Yes, there are many other places on earth which speak English in all its myriad varieties - but I'm not likely to get many responses from them, knowing my usual readers.