Mephistopheles <nobody@nowhere.net> wrote in
news:a976f45dvr787fhs16ip9omd76p2ln0d06@4ax.com:
> 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
>
> Oh shame on you Mr Mephistopheles!
Picking on poor little Grant like this and his only heinous crime being
his youthful inexperience at his grammatical choice of words.
You know he's only a young-un, him being only fresh out of his little
white cotton socks and grey shorts.
You will never catch me out with that spelin one cos I never spell the
same word twice the same way anyhow!
An were's yer tin At yer wil nedit you rottin spoiler
Cosmos
|
|