Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

I don't understand your point, though.
Maybe I should apply to be a Guardian sub.

Not sure whether the sub was one of us late risers! Or we late risers.

[Pulcinella]

Not sure whether the sub was one of us late risers! Or we late risers.

Ah!
I'd looked only at the bold line, thinking the complaint was about introducing Bear Grylls somehow.
And since that sentence uses is we don't have subject and object do we?

[kernelbogey]

I thought of adding, but didn't, that constructions such as 'Us late risers get...' is now common parlance (which I suppose means 'parlance of the vulgar'; anyway, street language) - but I think an erstwhile broadsheet newspaper - founded by C P Scott - should be aiming higher.

[kernelbogey]

I thought of adding, but didn't, that constructions such as 'Us late risers get...' is now common parlance (which I suppose means 'parlance of the vulgar'; anyway, street language) - but I think an erstwhile broadsheet newspaper - founded by C P Scott - should be aiming higher.

(But I did add - aiming below the belt - that surely Grylls's would be House Style at the Graun.)

[oddoneout]

(But I did add - aiming below the belt - that surely Grylls's would be House Style at the Graun.)

They use too much energy to be acceptable these days...

[Serial_Apologist]

Apart from anything else, I thought there were people living in what is now the UK before the very existence of Christianity.

Ah, but the past is a different country - they did things differently then.

[french frank]

(But I did add - aiming below the belt - that surely Grylls's would be House Style at the Graun.)

I was trying to remember whether he was Bear Grylls, or Bear Gryll - in which case Bear Gryll's opportunity clock.

[kernelbogey]

I was trying to remember whether he was Bear Grylls, or Bear Gryll - in which case Bear Gryll's opportunity clock.

Being tin he Graun, it might then come out as
BEAR GRILLS OPPORTUNITY CLOCK

[oddoneout]

Animal rights group Peta has asked a town in Connecticut to rename its oddly monikered Roast Meat Hill Road to Roast Vegan Hill Road.

Not sure they thought that one through - although their suggested wording will unfortunately find favour with some folk...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/23/peta-asks-connecticut-town-to-rename-street-roast-vegan-hill-road

[oddoneout]

Do you think the word they wanted was "disbursed"?

The first £200m was not dispersed until 9 December...

(from a Guardian report about misleading NHS funding claims)

[french frank]

Do you think the word they wanted was "disbursed"?

Yes

But my tiny thought: I've just had an email from Mr Rusbridger asking me to complete a survey which "will take fewer than 10 minutes".

Now, I do know the rule, but it did strike me that 'less than 10 minutes' would have been more, erm, idiomatic, a block of 10 minutes thought of as an entity rather than exactly 10 individual minutes. Or is it just that I'm now inured to the 'Less than 6 items' in the supermarket?

[oddoneout]

Yes

But my tiny thought: I've just had an email from Mr Rusbridger asking me to complete a survey which "will take fewer than 10 minutes".

Now, I do know the rule, but it did strike me that 'less than 10 minutes' would have been more, erm, idiomatic, a block of 10 minutes thought of as an entity rather than exactly 10 individual minutes. Or is it just that I'm now inured to the 'Less than 6 items' in the supermarket?

The surveys I've encountered in recent years have used the "less than" version or, increasingly - "shouldn't take more than..." In that context the "less than" doesn't grate on me as much as the supermarket usage for some reason, but thinking about it I would say "I'll be less than 5 minutes" for instance so perhaps that's why.

[Serial_Apologist]

The surveys I've encountered in recent years have used the "less than" version or, increasingly - "shouldn't take more than..." In that context the "less than" doesn't grate on me as much as the supermarket usage for some reason, but thinking about it I would say "I'll be less than 5 minutes" for instance so perhaps that's why.

Possibly that's because minutes aren't something one can have fewer of, since they're not objects, but a continuum?

[kernelbogey]

On BBC World Service I heard a presenter refer to a 'glossy video'.

Some of the online dictionaries offer 'slick' as one of its meanings.

I just find that an interesting usage.

[oddoneout]

On BBC World Service I heard a presenter refer to a 'glossy video'.

Some of the online dictionaries offer 'slick' as one of its meanings.

I just find that an interesting usage.

Along the lines of glossy magazines I assume - all image and no substance?