Not if it's spelled "Raliegh."

RepoMan. One of my faves.

"The more you drive...the less intelligent you are......

...and the movie version of a Sam Shepard screenplay that featured Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, and HDS....I forget the name, but he was amazing. Also Red Dawn..... He can make a simple cough an example of physcal acting.

And, The Missouri Breaks

Post and re-post.
Past and repast.
Process and re-process.
Pose and repose and re-pose.
Produce and reproduce.
Posess and repossess.
Populate and re-populate.
Grade and retrograde.
Habilitate and rehabilitate.
Store and restore.
Process and re-process.
Fit and retrofit.
Probate and reprobate.

The English language is a terrible thing.

It's short for repopulation.

Kinda like how Tom Waits can make a bad cough an example of good singing?

tom waits can do no wrong. see altman's 'short cuts,' or listen to swordfishtrombones. he's the best.

Oh, don't need to convince me, I used to bow at the altar of TW. I meant that he can literally cough into the microphone and it's all good, just part of the story.

Have you seen "At play in the fields of the lord"? And even better, any of the Jim Jarmusch films he acted in. "Down by Law" was sublime. Can you imagine TW, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni in a jail cell together?

Great movie.

"The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."

Awfully nitpicky for a person that can't spell or capitalize where appropriate.

It's an affectation not unlike the one belonging to a good friend of ours who is salt of the earth in most ways but she insists on mis-enunciating the word favourite", as in my "fravourite vintage bike is a Raliegh's".

This not so charming attribute makes her the centre of the universe, in her mind. To us, it's annoying beyond words.

Similarly for the lack of capitalization. This is fundamental bad netiquette that predates Al Gore

grand bois, this is the nitpicky thread.

clubman, your punctuation should be placed inside the end quote and at the end of each sentence.

also, must you insist with the british spelling? with the exception of 'grey,' the british are terrible at spelling.

Not always.

And the new Rogues Gallery CD of sea shantys. (shanties?)

I've always liked Short Cuts. My wife thinks it's demeaning to women, but it's well written and the cast gets right at it. Ann Archer has long been a favorite.

We went to school and we call it English.

Et vous?

"your punctuation" meant that that he used. so, yes, "always."

you need a comma after 'school,' for these are two separate full clauses with a subject/verb in each.

"et vous" is not a word and sounds 'made up.'

huh, i never thought of raymond carver like that. she'd have to let us know which women characters were demeaned. if it's leigh's phone sex character, i'd say leigh is the one with all the power. lily tomlin's waitress is demeaned by the fishermen, but it's the men that appear ugly and mean. (they later let the dead girl rot in the river while they continue to fish.) the cop's wife laughs at her husband in his face. francis mcdormand's is the only one at the end that makes out like a bandit. the baker (from 'a small good thing,' one of my favorites) isn't a woman, but is the real villain in the whole thing (in addition to leigh's murderous husband, played by now dead chris penn). so, i'd say your wife deserves a present of one of the carver collections to better understand intent.

besides hemingway, has there been a greater writer of shorts in the u.s.?

books make the best gifts, 'cause the giver can also take advantage.

glad there are waits fans out there in bikeland.

Oh thank God! I thought I was just stupid....turns out I must be British :D

I also admit to being a pedant when it comes to grammar and spelling. But there also a couple of points of usage that, while not strictly incorrect, rub me the wrong way for some reason. For example, it always strikes me as a little ridiculous when someone refers to a bike as "she." For an ocean liner or aircraft carrier, okay, but a bicycle? Also, I think it's a little jarring when speakers of American English refer to bike parts or components as "bits." And it's not that I don't like English bikes--I own two Raleigh's and a Dawe's.

What bugs me is when people say "the" when it should be "the" !

your post and use of that word immediately reminded me of camus' novella, 'the fall,' and his protagonist calling himself a "judge penitent." i always loved that novel's first person perspective of remorse, but never read anything critical about it until reading that word, 'pedant' and then going over to wiki and reading the novel's page entry. (wiki is so wonderful.) that mindful exercise then reminded me of a song by smog (bill callahan), called 'truth serum,' that i had to listen to for the first time in years. this all brought a meaningful end to my evening.

sometimes a random post goes a long way...

A Raleigh's and a Dawe's what? What of each of them do you own?

I can't remember the last time I saw this mistake.