Heptadecagon

I found myself looking up "have got" on the internet the other day. Why? Because I was reading a book written by a British author and I was consistently seeing "have got" throughout the book, WHICH WAS DRIVING ME CRAZY. Before you go wondering why I was so bothered, let me tell you this. The author was not using the phrase in this manner: I have got to go to the loo! That usage doesn't bother me so much, considering we use that sometimes as a way of emphasizing something. I have even heard myself mutter, "I have got to see that!" before. What I found in my searching is that, according to a few sites, usage of "have got" is common in Britain (in place of just "have"). However, whether it's used frequently across the pond or by people over here, the combination just sounds plain wrong to me, especially when they use it in the present perfect sort of way. So, "I'm sure my night terrors have got worse but then I gues...

This edition of TMHYRF is inspired by reading. No kidding. I do a lot of that, right? But I read mostly books. Good books, bad books, classic books, YA books, even some middle-grade books. And I know how hard it is to write a book, so I try to keep my complaints to a minimum. Unless the book is poorly written. And that quality--really bad writing--seems to stop me on the internet, too. I mean, if you're writing for your own personal blog, I'm not going to talk about whether or not your prose is tight, if you have used proper punctuation, or if you've employed active verbs instead of passive verbs. (If I did cite you for those infractions, I'd be such a hypocrite: over half of the drivel you read here is chock full of errors in so many ways.) But if you're writing an article for a national outlet? I don't know say, a rather large online entity such as Slate for example? Well, I think you should be a good writer, meaning you should carefully choose your nouns,...