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Big games don’t phase him and other misused pears

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on July 20, 2024 by David GuionJuly 20, 2024  
mistakes with homonyms--fun with homonyms

Want some more fun reading other people’s mistakes with homonyms? It’s impossible to run out of material for this series of pears pairs of words people misuse. .C.J. Stroud had an amazing rookie year as quarterback for the Houston Texans. His offensive coordinator said, “He’s proven that big games don’t faze him.” Unfortunately, in my local paper, the headline proclaimed, “He’s proven that big games don’t phase him.” Another issue of the same paper included the headline, “A peak inside ‘safe injection site.’” Time was when newspapers had editors, part of whose job it was to fix errors like that.   We don’t expect much from the Web. A Google search result page had an ad with the headline “Books by Doctor’s.” But social media is a gold mine of misused pears.

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Posted in English language | Tagged homonyms, humor, misused pears | Leave a reply

Ghoti for lunch? What other fast food can we order?

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on June 15, 2024 by David GuionJune 15, 2024  
fish (ghoti) and chips

Everyone knows that George Bernard Shaw, a proponent of spelling reform, pointed out that “fish” can be spelled “ghoti.” Along with a lot of what everyone knows, it’s wrong. “Ghoti” does not appear in any of Shaw’s writings. So where does it come from? And why does it make some people mad? All the necessary research is making me hungry, so I’ll have to decide what to get when I go out for lunch—and how to spell it.

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Posted in English language | Tagged humor, spelling, words | Leave a reply

Animalia: cock and bull stories about phrases and animals

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on December 30, 2023 by David GuionDecember 30, 2023  
Cock and bull pub. phrase origins

English has many idiomatic phrases that refer to animals. There are certainly too many for one post. For this one, I picked four animals that each appear in two different phrases in my collection. As it turns out, in most cases, experts are not certain about the phrase origin. In some cases, non-experts have put forth some truly unbelievable stories. They can be the most fun.

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Posted in English language | Tagged English language, humor, phrases | Leave a reply

No easy feet: more misused pears and eggcorns

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on July 15, 2023 by David GuionJuly 15, 2023  
mistakes with homonyms--fun with homonyms

The heel broke off a woman’s shoe in a parking lot. She later reported, “I ripped the bottom from the other shoe, no easy feet.” I’ll bet she had easier feet once she finished than if she had tried to walk on one good shoe and one bad one. Still, ripping off the good heel must have been a difficult feat. Welcome back to the world of misused pears pairs of words: mistakes with homonyms, or the related “eggcorn,” where people try to write what they have misheard.

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Posted in English language | Tagged eggcorn, homonyms, humor, misused pears | Leave a reply

Spring: 27 quotes and some poems about its inspiration and craziness

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on May 6, 2023 by David GuionMay 6, 2023  
spring colors. quotations

According to Alfred Lord Tennyson, a young man’s fancies turn to thoughts of love in the spring. Many people have lots of reasons to find spring inspirational. Meanwhile, it’s a silly season. This year, where I live, early March was warmer than early April. One day, a long-sleeved shirt is uncomfortably warm. The next day, we need a jacket over it. Lots more famous writers besides Tennyson have written what spring turns their thoughts to.

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Posted in writing | Tagged humor, quotations | Leave a reply

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