A glaring example of officialese, the strange use of words often favored by corporations and government agencies, appeared in the Monitor last week. In apprehending a Concord High student who had been drinking alcohol in class, the reporting police officer said that he and another officer “escorted her to the… 0

A state representative’s recent comment about the apparent unconcern of some colleagues for “children and vagina’s” suggests that the Legislature may contain too many penises, including at least one who thinks that the plural of vagina is formed using an apostrophe. It is never redundant to remind all that… 0

A couple of odd usages popped up today, so it’s time again for the Grammarnator to grace the pages of the Insider. One was a word, in a comment on NHPR that children were being used increasingly in political ads (on abortion, gun legislation, etc.) and opining that their presence seems to “unfang the opposition… 0

There are many uses of the word take that you have to take metaphorically. “Take it away,” for example, might be an acknowledgment that your servants can clear the soup course, but it can also be an enthusiastic command from the talk-show host to his bandleader, who is certainly not literally transporting anything to another place. Take a look at how much space take… 0

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A few weeks ago the Grammarnatrix did a column on semi-colons. I never thought that the Concord Monitor would provide such a superb follow-up as it did the day after the Patriots’ victory over Houston in the divisional playoff game, but there is was, an entire paragraph explaining the superiority of the New England team: “They don’t have to rely completely on the offense,… 0

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The Grammarnator will abandon hectoring anyone this holiday season and offer an interesting geography lesson. Serendipitous exploration, which began by looking at a map of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in order to get my bearings in a detective novel by Steve Hamilton led me to this information. There are towns named Christmas in Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, and Mississippi.… 0

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The Grammarnator will comment this week on the publication of his column last week, and give the Insider something to ponder about its own practices.“Tomas assured us that the chemicals could probably be safely mixed, but his probably stuck in our minds.” – A Pocket Style Manual, by, by Diane Hacker.“What does our imply?” – Quick Access Reference… 0