Argot Navis

I now have a new way to spend time when I’m not busy hitting refresh waiting for that cheap VB-2 to materialize on craigslist. Yes, I have recently rediscovered Paul Brians’ fantastic Common Errors in English (he asks that everyone link to that page, which answers any questions you might have about the site. If you’d just like to skip to the errors, well, go here), thanks to a comment on a recent entry in Dan’s blog. If you’re like me, there will be a lot to entertain you there.

It’s not that I make a lot of these common errors, or that I’m particularly picky about the way other people use language (although he does address my current, mystifyingly common pet peeve). Part of why I’ve been enjoying it so much is that Paul Brians is pretty funny, in an English professor sort of way. I think what I really enjoy, though, is guessing what the entries will actually be about before I click them. The entry for “ax” is a good example. I thought it was going to discuss the two spellings of the tool, but no, the ax in question is just a futuristic pronunciation of ask.

Anyway, check it out. There are some pretty good ones.