Good job he wasn't lying prostate...
On 1 March 2015 at 07:08, ChrisB <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I look forward to your finding it, Bob. One of the worst assaults on
> English by the military (mainly the US military) is the “as of” phrase.
> Originally intended to give a precise timescale (in the UK accountants used
> to use “as at”), it has strayed into everyday use and gives rise to the
> foul “as of yet”. It’s foul because “yet” means exactly the same thing,
> but the expansion of our language with unnecessary prepositions (whether or
> not the turn up at the end of a clause or sentence :-)) ruins the
> simplicity and elegance of many of our words.
>
> On a slightly different thread of linguisticts, yesterday I listened to a
> pretty good radio play as I was driving, enjoying it until . . . I heard
> the phrase “a boat ricocheting against the rocks of the reef” (completely
> ignoring the meaning of ‘ricochet’) and then a minute or so later, “he was
> lying supine in the bottom of the boat”; how else would he lie, or what is
> supine but lying?
>
> I managed to forget these errors and enjoyed the rest of the story :-)
>
> Chris
> > On 28 Feb 15, at 16:08, Bob Whitmire <bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > One way as I wandered back into my barracks at my last posting, I
> stopped to peruse the company bulletin board, as we were required to do
> twice a day, and I saw posted a set of instructions that seemed to me to
> perfectly encapsulate the opacity of military writing, and so with great
> caution to make sure I was no observed, I took it down and stowed it away
> amongst my personal papers to take home with me. I hope someday to find it
> again, if only to see if I still can understand it.
>
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