Some words I misuse or use that don’t exist

  • boughten – I'm still not sure if this is a word.
  • lay/lie – I lie down on the job, but I would lay down my weapons if confronted by a swat team. If I did these things yesterday or would have done them or would have been doing them or will do them…the tenses confuse me.
  • catenate – As Erik informed me after seeing this on my site, the word should be concatenate. The Unix short-cut for the concatenate utility is "cat", which has caused many a foreign, or in my case Midwestern, programmer to develop this error. Editor's Note: Since posting this, Matt was nice enough to inform me that catenate IS a word. Erik can GFY.
  • youns, yous, y'all – I've used each of these. Something in us cries out for a plural "you." All other languages have it. You all know what I mean.
  • row – This is a word, but for years I pronounced it as "roe" when referring to a fight (it should rhyme with "cow"). Eventually, a girlfriend pointed this out rather smugly one day. Then we had a row. I won, because in Altoona, nobody has rows, we only have fights.
  • ain't – For some sentences, it just sounds better. Normally, when followed by "fuckin'." As in, "Get your own beer. I ain't your fuckin' caretaker!"

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Today's POTD shows that coat of choice in my office is the 3/4 length black wool.

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Site of the Day: Although some of his musical elitism annoys even me, in response to "Fuck the South," Neil Pollack does a good job of taking to task folks like me who were guilty of elitism in post-election frustration.

  • boughten – I'm still not sure if this is a word.
  • lay/lie – I lie down on the job, but I would lay down my weapons if confronted by a swat team. If I did these things yesterday or would have done them or would have been doing them or will do them…the tenses confuse me.
  • catenate – As Erik informed me after seeing this on my site, the word should be concatenate. The Unix short-cut for the concatenate utility is "cat", which has caused many a foreign, or in my case Midwestern, programmer to develop this error. Editor's Note: Since posting this, Matt was nice enough to inform me that catenate IS a word. Erik can GFY.
  • youns, yous, y'all – I've used each of these. Something in us cries out for a plural "you." All other languages have it. You all know what I mean.
  • row – This is a word, but for years I pronounced it as "roe" when referring to a fight (it should rhyme with "cow"). Eventually, a girlfriend pointed this out rather smugly one day. Then we had a row. I won, because in Altoona, nobody has rows, we only have fights.
  • ain't – For some sentences, it just sounds better. Normally, when followed by "fuckin'." As in, "Get your own beer. I ain't your fuckin' caretaker!"

…

Today's POTD shows that coat of choice in my office is the 3/4 length black wool.

…
Site of the Day: Although some of his musical elitism annoys even me, in response to "Fuck the South," Neil Pollack does a good job of taking to task folks like me who were guilty of elitism in post-election frustration.