Okay...I guess I have to give him the benifit of doubt....He DID cut it and BURN it but he sucked up ahead of time....Out of the blue for our anniversary a few weeks ago he bought me new Canon Rebel XT....I was truly surprised...It was our 42nd anniversary...so you see...he must be worth something...I've kept him around a LONG time...and hope to keep him a lot longer...well....unless he burn more of my treasures... I'll rag on my son a little...We recently tore down an old shed...rented one of those big trash bins they bring in ...While we were gone he got that whole thing down and cleaned out...only problem was...he threw away my super old bicycle we called her dute da dute...after the music being played when the wicked witch in Wiz of Oz was riding the bike...do do do do do...Mine looked like that one. It was clear in the bottom of the bin and covered...I did rescue my rusty red wheelbarrow and an oval wash tub, they were at the top of the bin...but he threw away one of my galvanized watering cans and several enamelware bowls. I'm sure there was more that I can't remember right now. I'll probably be looking for them someday...oh ! I just remembered..my bowling balls...he got to them too...so he's on my list right now too...lol...

I can not spell. i haven't been able to spell since i flunked spelling in second grade. but i know that i have a problem, so i use spell check. but spell check doesn't understand usage/context ie: their and they're are both correct to spell check even if used incorrectly. that is one reason why people spell incorrectly, even if they are using a computer-- spell check says it's okay. some people don't spell well because they don't know they have a problem. they don't even bother to go and check-- it looks okay to them. i know the word is wrong; i just don't know what's wrong with it. my latin and german professors dispair of me. my papers were littered with (sp)'s written by me before they were turned in. after 3 years of college german, a professor finally counted all the languages that i had spelling problems with: english, latin, french, german, spanish, italian and stopped counting as it seems my weakness also extended into more archaic languages as well. but my neices and nephews, brought whole new meaning to my inabilities when i started reading their letters and papers. evidently, content was more important (and this i question as well) than the technical aspects of writing such as spelling, grammar, punctuation etc. my wife and i share a special pet peeve over mis-used possives. diggerb

When I was in high school, there were three kids in the family that lived on one side of us. The parents disliked nicknames, so gave their children names that they thought people would actually use, rather than calling their kids by nicknames. One daughter was named Betty. Didn't name her Elizabeth, because they knew folks would end up calling her Betty, so they gave her the name Betty. Another daughter was named Barbara. HUH? That kid was called Barb, Babs, and Barbie all the time. The parents goofed on that one. Their son's first and middle names are Bobby Gene. Now, I think Robert Eugene is a great name, but they named him Bobby Gene. Why not Bob? Bobby is ok for a small child, but think about a 60-year-old man with the legal name of Bobby...

Nancy, there are regional differences, and culture group differences, in how things are said. "For myself" is centuries old. In my own way of speaking, "As for me" would be said in direct contrast to something specific which others have put forth, whereas "for myself" is more or less a short form of "speaking for myself". Subtle difference. I totally agree that it's simpler to use a regular pronoun in the other examples you gave, but there are some places that use reflexive pronouns. Unfortunately, bad teaching has proscribed the use of "I" for many people. They're taught that they shouldn't say I, I, I all the time, so instead of varying their sentence structures, and using I when appropriate, they twist themselves up to avoid it, so that might be another source of these irritating constructions. "Persons" is a legal usage in your examples. I think it's meant to denote individuals or something, since "people" is a group noun. Signage is a collective noun which usually refers to a system of signs rather than to merely to the signs themselves. So the display manager will discuss signage with the graphic designer. They create a system of signs that are meant to work together to make the shopping experience better for the customers. "Signs" are what the clerks have to stay after hours to put up. The overlap is when the display manager asks the floor manager if she received the signage for the Autumn promotions. It is correct in that the box holds the physical instantiation of the system of signage. Signs would also be correct, because the box is full of signs. I totally get your .AARGH!!, Linda, but I think it's normal for the speaker not to count himself in the people there. I remember when I went to school and there was no one there. That's the way I've always said it. (They had called a holiday but a few didn't get the word...) Perhaps it's directional? Because the act of my going there implied that I wasn't someone there yet? Whereas, if I were already inside, it would be more accurate to say, "There's no one here but me." Which should probably be "I", but that sounds funny.