About two years back, before he foreclosed on his Grand Mission here,
I drew y not's attention to what to me was his irritatingly persistent
confusion over two simple words: namely, LOOSE, & LOSE.
"Loose" = not firmly or tightly fixed. ( a loose screw, a loose tooth)
"Lose" = to mislay, be deprived of ( to lose a tooth is worse than a
loose one)
A loose cannon can be annoyingly unpredictable, but to lose a cannon
far worse, especially if it finishes up in the hands of the Taliban.
If you were reporting back on the War situation from the Front it's
important to get these distinctions right.
He graciously thanked me for pointing it out, but sadly I never saw
any firm purpose of amendment. He continued in the error of his ways.
And so time passed, & the children who were children grew up & bought
motor cars & the leaves dropped from their parent branches & the snows
fell in their flocculent exuberance. All seemed well with the world.
And Mephi busy as always with good deeds everywhere forgot all about
it....till today.
In the thread "Who is this man?" you wrote(my Capitals):-
" to offend you and the rest of the wolfpack and
LOOSE you as a useless friend is more like it."
(from your penultimate post, 3rd interpolation)
So, on a whimsy, I re-read (oh, I am a glutton for punishment) the 2nd
post in the same thread by your closet companion, who curiously
slipped up on that fugitive word:-
"Trolls never win arguments in the Fort..... They LOOSE just in acting
like trolls, whatever the merits of their arguments."
(from his penultimate paragraph)
Now, mutatis mutandis, & to quote Oscar Wilde, "To lose one parent may
be regarded as a misfortune, but to lose both looks like
carelessness".....but 3 In such close proximity, & in the same
thread.... Am I being too subtle here?
Such confusion may, of course, be a widespread & legitimate
Americanism. Or, as the Roman Pataculus observed:- "Emulation is the
spur of wit, & sometimes envy, sometimes admiration, quickens our
endeavours". In other words, friends idiosyncracies brush off against
each other.........or......Shades of Gemstone?
No, Mephi, no!
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch
Well, as you can see, I am sorely discombobulated by it all, & apply
to you for help in the hope that you can bring my research to a more
satisfying & meaningful conclusion.
Mephi
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