I think the one that bugs me most is when sellers on ebay refer to unbroken things as "in tact." It's one word, people. Tact is "a sense of what is appropriate." Being "in tact" makes no kind of sense at all.

Someone online said "walla" for "voila" the other day. Not too long ago a person referring to cannibalism referred to "soil and green."

Many thanks to the Anonymous who pointed out that the yellow ribbon originates in a Civil War Era song. You taught me something I didn't know.

Oh, and P.S., Cary, I love you. No ribbon on my car either.

I need to know how one could use lachrymose appropriately when discussing wine.

I prefer my wine to be phlegmatic, but not bilious.

I confess I haven't read the original letter to which this refers (still catching up), but the response fascinated me. Certain types of cheese can be lachrymose, although that's a strange way to refer to a weepy mozzarella. Wine can MAKE people lachrymose. A lachrymose wine, not possible as far as I know.

American Heritage Dictionary says it is indeed "hone in." Not "home in."

Phrasal Verb(s):

hone in

1. To move or advance toward a target or goal: The missiles honed in on the military installation.

2. To direct one's attention; focus: The lawyer honed in on the gist of the plaintiff's testimony.

Gotta love picky people who are WRONG!

Oh, speaking of silver platters: I don't know who put out the idea that brides get all kinds of great gifts. Most of the gifts that I got, and that my friends got, were total pieces of crap...things like engraved silver trays, monogrammed picture frames, napkin rings, embroidered tea towels, etc. All stuff you can't even return for the cash, LOL. Only on TV, or amongst the hoi polloi, do people get gifts of new cars or bags of money. Most people don't get much of anything really valuable, the gifts are both overpriced and symbolic, rendering them useless for the most part.

Um. It's called a registry. If you don't get the things you want, you shoulda registered for different things. Not only did I get pretty much everything I could have wanted, I returned enough stuff to pay for our honeymoon. And I don't think I count as hoi polloi.

Sorry your friends are defective!

I'm going to buck the trend here and say that in my family this LW's issue wouldn't even be a problem - the money has already been put aside for her. If she doesn't need it for the intended purpose, it's reasonable to ask for it. It's not a given that her mother will have a fainting fit at the thought.

"Not old enough to be a completely reliable witness" sent up a huge red flag for me. Translated, that means, "When your child complains we really don't give a shit."

The kid is bleeding - obviously something happened. Why would he be motivated to lie about who did the biting?

Complain to whoever you can, as far up the line as you can; but I would start with complaining again to whoever said they didn't believe your child when he said who bit him. That's not acceptable at all. It makes your child vulnerable to every possible kind of predation.

My husband remembers being bitten as a child, by a neighbor's child his mom was babysitting. The 1960's in Indiana were a different world: his mom's remedy was to hold the little girl down and let him bite her to show her what it felt like. Everyone on this board is going to think that was inappropriate, but it worked - she never bit anyone ever again.

I'm going to chime in with those who have pointed out that the biter being the child of an employee makes the situation more, not less, scary. If the employees do not treat all children fairly, that is bad.

Yes, Boyz are official Bratz dolls. They have names like Cameron and Eitan.

So girls are only allowed to have their dolls date boy dolls who look like crap? Pot gut, balding, whatever? When I was a little girl, I had a Ken doll. (If you know anything about Barbie, this was Mod Hair Ken, the shorter haired version with the receding hairline.) Ken looked like crap. I hated him for being so damned ugly, and my dolls ended up dating boys who were conveniently invisible because of being enchanted by an evil witch. Which I guess was good for my budding imagination, but it was very frustrating at the time.

Where's the article telling the truth about Bratz, that this year's lineup is mostly based around sports and camping?

Which would make the problem difficult to fix.

I don't mind the spoilers. I don't trust Rowling after some of the gaffs she's made (for example, discovering that Mad-Eye was really someone you had never met after you got to like him), and the first thing I was planning to do when I bought the book was flip to the end and reassure myself that she hadn't blown this one too.

Besides, some twat commenter on an unrelated youtube video already spoilered everything for me. Why do people feel the urge to do things like that?