I'll see if I can rent a copy this weekend. Now I've just GOT to figure this out! :)

That's a great question.

If I know for certain that the program will substitute a smiley face, I usually use the smiley code plus the close paren, ":))". I don't do this for Microsoft Word, though, because I hate the smiley faces that program defaults to, and it's too finicky to change.

In all other cases I avoid using it at all if a close paren follows.

Another option is to turn the smiley around, "(:" but that's confusing.

*absolutely stumped*

AC, I always thought "bastardized" was identical in meaning to the phrase "corrupted and made illegitimate." An art form can certainly be a "legitimate art form," so if an artist makes a work in which he crudely and resentfully makes nonsense out of an art form, you certainly may call it "bastardized."

Think of the people who smear excrement on a canvas and call it "painting." Or, rather, don't think of them... think of something nice instead. It's too damn early in the morning to think of nasty things like that. :)

Alec, that rule you mentioned was considered correct up until as late as twenty or so years ago, but the balance has now shifted. Such things do not happen all at once; there is no legislative body decreeing, "from this point forward, everyone will speak using the following construction...."

If you follow the link I posted you'll see that the usage "they" has a long and distinguished history, and is now getting the attention it deserves for being the most becoming and natural solution to the indeterminate-gender-pronoun problem in English.

You'll still get arguments from people who think the old rule is (or should be) correct, but I think you will find that their insistence on "he" and "his" for all such cases is really no solution at all.

"Firm's" is correct.

Look on the home page, Susie, for a link you can use to submit your next question.

It means that the artist deserves to be disciplined at least once for each art form bastardized in the finished work.

(Joke!)

I thought of recasting the statement with "neither:"

"Neither he nor I is a fool." Hmmm.

"Neither of us is a fool." This is obviously correct.

Amazing how this stuff nags at you, particularly if you're too lazy to do the proper research. ;D

Oh, AC, that's passe... the "one word" necesary has now been coined. By Goossun. :)

According to my spot research, I notice that yes, both are perfectly correct as such. However, they are not strictly interchangeable.

"Awhile" is a single adverb. "For a while," that is identical in meaning, is a construct called an "adverbial phrase," or a phrase used as if it was a single adverb.

Be careful here. The phrase "in a while" is also an adverbial phrase, but it is not identical in meaning to "a while" or "for a while."