Hello Mary Chambers. It is good to be in grumpy room from the point of view that after difficulties come improvement. Of course life is unpredictable.
I found some solace lately from composer of the week series. I listened to Respighi and now to Sibelius program. They had their share of misfortunes.
Yesterday I learnt that Sibelius's wife got even sick because of financial worries. She had to grow vegetables in her garden because they did not have enough money and were in debt. Somehow they overcame desease and worries and lived  to an old age. The most important thing is not to take things too badly. I wish I could post in my room with big letters as it is only good in theory.

I had an English teacher at school who always insisted 'train station' was wrong, and should be 'railway station'. I never asked her what she thought a bus stop should be called. (A 'road stop', maybe?)

I do think 'station stop' is very silly, albeit accurate (it's true that not all stations are stops, and not all stops are stations ...).

Did it? I think the day someone calls me 'too smart for his own good' for a change, my mum will be very proud of me!

Erm ... I didn't know 'um' had preceded 'erm'; I thought they were just alternatives. If pushed, I'd have said 'um' was the American one (reminds me of the way they write 'err' as 'uh', which I think is horrible!).


My own pet hate: 'onto'. A journal I've written for which is old-fashioned enough to have corrected all my '-ise' and '-isations' to '-ize' and '-ization' also corrected my 'on to' to 'onto', which I think is a nasty modern invention. (See what I mean about house styles: they can be so irrational, and almost always contain at least one thing you object to unless you've invented them yourself!)

Don't ask me why I approve of 'into' but not 'onto', though: I can't answer that one.

'Smart' and 'fill out' are American English, Mary. I think we've started to use them here regularly only in the last ten years or so.
Mostly, I'm fine with these transatlantic alternatives. But one I simply cannot stand is, when asking for food in a cafe, or a drink in a pub, 'Can I get a...'. This is now 100% universal amongst students, and almost anyone under the age of 30 it seems. I'll bet tinners doesn't say it though.  

t_i_n ...

Aaargh. I withdraw the '100%' bit. And I meant 30, not 25, now corrected - just forgot to revise the post! 

To lower the level of the conversation a little, I wonder about the increasing prevalence of the American 'ass' over the more jovial British 'arse'?

Different mental images?

An American 'ass' (one's own or another's) is primarily the recipient of external actions, usually (but not invariably) unpleasant or painful, such as kicking, shifting or indeed 'whupping'.

A British 'arse', on the other hand (as it were), is a comedic object entire unto itself, the comedy stemming from its function. It is an agent in its own right as much as a target area or recipient of outside intervention.

An 'arse' is necessarily cloven. An 'ass' need not be for certain of its purposes.

But one can also 'get your arse into gear', or 'move your arse'. Not sure about 'whupping' it, though. When someone says 'they're going to have your arse' it has, er, rather different connotations from 'they're going to have your ass'.