RARA-AVIS: You Say "Hornet's", I Say "Hornets'"

From: Kevin Burton Smith (kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 13 Jul 2010

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    Craig wrote:

    > Not meaning to be snarky here. I just know that the people who would have
    > checked the spelling would've merely gone to the dictionary.

    Ah, snarky is as snarky does. I guess I deserved that. I skipped that whole checking part because I grew up with hornets' nests. And there just aren't any hornets where I am now (mostly it's rattlesnakes and coyotes), so it hasn't come up in real life yet.

    > As for whether it's a threat to American masculinity I can't say, except that
    > the one time I stepped on a hornets' nest, I screamed like a little girl when
    > they started stinging me. :)

    See why it seems weird to me? It could be read as a nest belonging to "a hornet" but "they" stung you.

    But what do I know? I still spell colour with a "u" and call them "elastics," not "rubber bands." An infinite source of amusement for some of my American co-workers.

    Still, I guess I shouldn't complain. The world will be a much duller place when regionalism and cultural differences are stamped out completely, and the entire world is steamrollered to a gummy, dumbed down homogenous blandness controlled by corporations.

    Kevin Burton Smith Editor/Founder The Thrilling Detective Web Site
    "Wasting your time on the web since 1998."

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