WHAT YOU GONNA DO?

[santaclaustral]

See, that's one good thing about being a girl. If I really wanted to, I could wear a bathrobe to work and pretend it's a dress. I mean, maybe not one of my comfy fluffy ones, but. . . So far I made a cup of coffee and shoveled snow, now I'm about to make another cup of coffee and try to find something edible in the house. Later I'm supposed to go out with my mom, tentatively dinner and/or a movie.

It's not really the same thing but... today, I wore my pajama bottoms to work under my trousers. I'm going to be doing that a lot more next week if the weather forecast is anything to go by.

[Andrew_TSKS]

why do some people say "called in" and some people say "called out"

or "smoked up" or "smoked out"

why are some people "waiting in line" and some people are "waiting on line"?

[milesofsparks]

why do some people say "called in" and some people say "called out"

or "smoked up" or "smoked out"

why are some people "waiting in line" and some people are "waiting on line"?

waiting ON line bugs me, even though I'm sure it's equally correct.  everyone on the east coast seems to say it and it just sounds wrong to me.

[Andrew_TSKS]

i think it's more a northeast thing... around here, everyone says "in line".

[SPACERACE]

i have never heard anyone say "on line," so not neccessarily.

[jess]

It's not a Northeast thing, it's specifically a New York thing. Bostonians say "in line" as do most New Englanders I believe.

[milesofsparks]

that's funny--I heard people in Boston say on line pretty often.  maybe it's spreading.

[morgan]

Nooooooo, don't let that spread!  It sounds wrong!!!

Why have people forgotten the word 'lend'?  Why is everything suddenly, "I'll borrow you my sweater" and "Can you borrow me a pen?"

Seriously fucking annoying.

[Greg Nog]

Why have people forgotten the word 'lend'?  Why is everything suddenly, "I'll borrow you my sweater" and "Can you borrow me a pen?"

Well, it's not their first language.  Koreans must mix up a lot of those kinds of words.

I never heard "stand on line" until I moved out of New England.

[morgan]

Hah.  Hah hah. 

No seriously, it's not a problem over here.  It's a problem in Milwaukee.

[jebreject]

It's a problem most everywhere and it's nothing new. I even got called on it a couple weeks ago, which was embarassing, 'cause usually I'm the one calling out motherfuckers.

Why does Cormac McCarthy refer to things being "in" the floor rather than "on" it?

[Greg Nog]

Why does Cormac McCarthy refer to things being "in" the floor rather than "on" it?

I've never noticed that.  Can you give an example?

[coldforge]

A quarter mile down the road he stopped and looked back. We're not thinking, he said. We have to go back. He pushed the cart off the road and tilted it over where it could not be seen and they left their packs and went back to the station. In the service bay he dragged out the steel trashdrum and tipped it over and pawed out all the quart plastic oilbottles. Then they sat in the floor decanting them of their dregs one by one, leaving the bottles to stand upside down draining into a pan until at the end they had almost a half quart of motor oil. He screwed down the plastic cap and wiped the bottle off with a rag and hefted it in his hand. Oil for their little slutlamp to light the long gray dusks, the long gray dawns. You can read me a story, the boy said. Cant you, Papa? Yes, he said. I can.

[Trousers and Pat]

He also likes the "should of" and "cant"
Me too.

[jebreject]

I noticed it a few times in The Road, and now once or twice in Blood Meridian. I dunno. It really stuck out to me.

[girl]

After work and then chipping away at the compacted snow/ice mixture on my driveway, I was so sleepy that I took a nap from about 7:00 until 1:00, which would normally fuck up my sleeping for the rest of the night, but I'm actually still pretty tired, so I'll probably just go back to bed soon.

[diesel_powered]

Nooooooo, don't let that spread!  It sounds wrong!!!

Why have people forgotten the word 'lend'?  Why is everything suddenly, "I'll borrow you my sweater" and "Can you borrow me a pen?"

Seriously fucking annoying.

This makes me want to cut people. As much as when I hear NOOK-YOU-LER or ANT-ARTIC or LIBARY. But you can't really correct people on such things because you sound like an elitist asshole. So you end up bottling up all your grammatic rage until you explode and beat someone to death with a copy of The Elements of Style.

[Good Intentions]

I say ant-arctic. It's called a consistent phonology, you elitist asshole.

[Andrew_TSKS]

how are you supposed to say it?

[morgan]

ANT-ARTIC

I say ant-arctic. It's called a consistent phonology, you elitist asshole.

See the difference?  It's supposed to be arCtic, not artic.  I think that's what he means, anyway?  Which is why I'm really confused by GI's response.

[Good Intentions]

Ah, I see it now. Turns out I'm impetuous and illitirate.

[morgan]

Haha!  Aw, no.  It took me a minute to see it, too.

[alex]

Why have people forgotten the word 'lend'?  Why is everything suddenly, "I'll borrow you my sweater" and "Can you borrow me a pen?"

Seriously fucking annoying.

I make that mistake all the time (in German, it's "borgen" for both words), and since I've kind of given up on the idea of ever learning to avoid it, it's actually reassuring to hear that the mistake is spreading among native speakers as well. Ha!

[Good Intentions]

And in Afrikaans it's 'leen' for both terms, following from the Dutch, I believe. I struggle the same way.

Borrow is a much cooler word than lend anyway.

[Greg Nog]

I was thinking about that this morning, 'cause I read something where someone said "Remember me to him, will you?" and I thought, "Oh hey!  That's like the same kind of deal as the borrow/lend stuff from Last Plane!"

I usually say "en(t)ARdic", the first T just barely pronounced, the first C skipped over entirely, the final T given the same voice that I subsequently use for the I.  It's maybe the laziest possible way of saying it without just going "ERRNT".