Your Letters
16:25 UK time, Friday, 22 May 2009
In keeping with the Magazine readers obsession with nominative determinism, I spoke to "Sue" at my local council's debt recover department. When I said to her that her's was an ironic name, she said she was really offended and hung up!
John Airey, Peterborough, UK
I've enjoyed your recent innovation to publish all entries to the Caption Competition. Sifting out six amusing answers must sometimes be very tricky. But when will people realise that ending a caption with an ellipsis or an exclamation mark almost guarantees it won't be funny?
David, Bagshot, Surrey
In reply to Dan Wilkinson, Chesterfield, UK (Letters, Thursday). Not only did I start to count the minis (to see if there were 10) I also wondered how many other people were doing the same thing.
Janet, Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury
I have to disagree with Dick Savage (Letters, Thursday) as I can think of occasions in which one could perfectly legitimately use "love" in the present continuous. To be fair, though, getting too caught up in that particular kind of conjugation could spoil the moment.
Adam, London, UK
Dick, languages are shaped by their speakers, and many of the rules set in stone at some arbitrary point by long-deceased grammarians are no longer relevant (ending a sentence with a preposition, anyone?). If a construction like 'I'm loving it' adds some new kind of meaning to our language then I can't see the problem. Given time it will probably end up in the grammar books itself.
Jack, Manchester
Dick Savage (Letters, Thursday) raises an interesting point regarding 'I'm loving...' - it isn't traditionally-accepted usage but the concept of correctness is more complex than he makes out. Use of the present continuous in this way is on the rise, and it's probably not going away. So while it might not be something you'd teach to people speaking English as language learners, that's not quite the same thing as it being wrong to say it.
Jeremy, Bloomsbury
Dick Savage - Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. I too loathe this ghastly phrase and every junk-munching moron who uses it. Probably the only one I hate more is 'I'm *so* loving...' - since when did it become 'cool' to sound like a vacuous LA airhead?? Grrrr.....
Sue, London
So Toby Stephens (Friday's Quote)thinks the world isn't ready for a ginger Bond? Didn't Roger Moore have hair that colour? Or at least his stunt "double" did in the car chase through Paris in "A View to a Kill."
Rob Falconer, Llandough, Wales
Does anyone else read the letters and try to second-guess what stories the links are to? I'm getting pretty good at it!!
Lucy P, Ashford, Kent
In regards to the Sun's handling of the violence in a Chinese restaurant, they should have gone for "A case of won-ton destruction".
The Bob, Glasgow
Discarded once again. Here goes with another attempt at glory. Now,....Oh blast! I've forgotten....
Dorian Williams, Salerno, Italy
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