Proper English

Oh, joy. I just ran across two sites, The Phrase Finder and World Wide Words that love the English language. International, British English, but that will do (suffice?). The Brits are good at this sort of thing.

WWW even collects newspaper mistakes. Of course I'll be back. One example:

The media, print and online, have recently widely quoted Karl Rove talking about Barack Obama (Peter Weinrich saw it in the New York Times): “Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.” Contemptuous cigarettes — what will they think of next?

What could I add, except 'not if Karl Rove is on the membership committee'.

He said she said, or so she said

I didn't run down the Rove quote. That's the downside of the internet. It gets so caught up in commenting on comments that you may never see what caused the hullabaloo in the first instance (See? Those insidious Beefeaters are influencing me).

I found those sites through boingboing.net, which reviews reviews a lot. Like the piece I'd just finished about the Gatling Gun. Scrolling down the page, this quote for you New York Times fans caught my eye:

The most effective use of Gatling guns during the civil war, Keller writes, was by the New York Times, which lined them up outside its offices to scare away a mob of anti-conscription activists upset with its editor's outspoken criticism of them. They were far more successful among police departments and factory owners than as actual military weapons — as intimidating as they were ineffective, they made perfect security theater.