I do my thinking by kerosene lamplight at the table in my 1900 kitchen. There, I’m surrounded by nothing of the 21st Century (original cupboards, 1932 range, 1934 refrigerator, wringer washer, etc.) so I’m transported to an earlier time where my troubles don’t necessarily have to exist unless I invite them in.

Sometimes, late at night, I’m reminded of the image of an old man in Enstrom’s famous 1918 photograph, "Grace". (See illustration at http://www.photopixels.com/grace/index.html .) That could be me, except I’m usually thinking, not praying.

Thank you for opening this topic for discussion!  This will be interesting.

The most irritating, to me, is the misuse of I/me.  To me, it’s a primary indicator ofintelligence.  Why?  It demonstrates the quickness (or slowness)of a speaker’s thought process.

Only an immeasurably short interval of time is required to[mentally] substitute one or the other – and make a choice.  In the sentence above, would anyone ever say,“To I, it’s a primary indicator … ”?  Ofcourse not.  So the decision is made in ananosecond.  If someone says, “Sally wentwith Susan and I”, it’s obvious that they haven’t processed the following:

“If Susan hadn’t gone along, would Sally have gone with meor I?”  She would have gone with me, ofcourse.  So, by removing Susan from the equation– and then adding her back – the correct pronoun is obvious.  (This whole Q&A can take place in our heads without breaking stride or hesitating.)  Beside that, both of these illustrationsinvolve a pronoun following a preposition; in that case, it’s always me.

My grandmother and her friend, both teachers, had a privatejoke between them.  When they would calleach other on the telephone, they would say, “It is I.  Do you know who I is?”  Of course, this was technically correct sincethey were using “I” as the subject.  Itjust sounded odd.

Not far behind me/I is the use of couple, pair, team, etc.as a plural unit.  The Associated Pressis notorious for this and their headlines make my skin crawl.  Yesterday, this appeared as the heading of anA.P. story:  “Pair Toss Coins, Cones OverWrong Size Fries”.  It do?  A pair tosses; more than one pair toss.  A pair, a couple, and a team are single units.  Why do people insist onconjugating them as if they’re plural?

“No worries.” “Awesome!”  “Umm…”   "There/Their/They’re"  "Should of"  “Shut up!” (the most obscene two words inthe English language, as far as I’m concerned.)  Apostrophes as quotation marks.  Then, there are the parents who scold their child by saying, “Stophitting your sister, okay?”  Okay,indeed!

I could go on and on, but my horoscope warns against beingoverly pompous today.  Who, me?  (“Who, I?”)  Ha-ha! Thank you for the use of the hall.

I’d like to ask you something Paul, and I hope I don’t seem like a smart Aleck in asking it.  Why are you (and so many others) using apostrophes as quotation marks?  After all, "politically incorrect" and "dead white men" were not quotes within a quotation.  This irritates me no end!  But, if you — or anyone else — could explain it to me, perhaps my nervous rash would subside a little.  ;-)

I’m not trying to "call you out" or embarrass you on purpose.  I really want to understand.