Thursday, November 14, 2002

I was just looking at this page, which describes itself as a "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness" It reminded me of one of my language pet peeves, the use of the phrase "I (he, she, we, it) could care less." The phrase is "I (et al) couldn't care less." If you could care less, it doesn't really convey the meaning that the phrase intends to convey, now does it?

There's a discussion of this at www.urbanlegends.com/language/could_care_less.html in which the author opines, in part, that the use of "I could care less" is sarcasm. I'm not sure I accept this wholesale. It might be used that way sometimes, but my experience when I've called people on the use of the phrase is that they honestly think they're using the correct phrase to mean that they couldn't care less about X rather than being sarcastic about it.

This author agrees with me.

Merriam-Webster says that "I could care less has an emphatically sarcastic ring to it when spoken." I suppose it does however I stand by my opinion that most people that use the phrase I could care less , sarcastic ring notwithstanding, are not intending to use it sarcastically. They're just...well...wrong.

That's my pet peeve of the day.

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Maybe it is the same year that something good happens to me also. The last month has been pretty damn good. Most fun I've had in years.

Anyway...any ladies out there reading this, go take a look at PickUpYourOwnDamnSocks.com. I think you'll get a kick out of it. I do.