The V

A couple of minor points:

1. There is no hyphen in 'bisexual'.
2. It's not "Can this be tumble dried?", it's "Can this be tumbled dry?"

All of the above are probably incorrect but they're right in McNultyish, which is all that counts.

More as I become further enraged by them.

There is also no such thing as bisexual

2. Then why is it a "tumble drier" and not a "tumbler dry"?

Also if you type "tumble" too many times it doesn't seem like a real word anymore.

Just because it's pissed me off hugely today - because I've seen it six bloody times already (not here, but at work)...

stationary means not moving.

stationery is envelopes, pads, etc.

My pet niggle: "Sisyphean" (a job you nearly complete, then the whole thing falls apart and you have to do it all over again) vs "Herculean" (a job where by the time you finish the last bit, the first bit needs doing again).

I literally cry every time I have to correct a sports journalist who misspells millennium (As in Dome). It's the national fucking stadium! Learn to spell!

I do come across the dryer/drier problem quite frequently and it's guaranteed my gut-instinct on it is always wrong.

Mine? "Canon" vs. "Cannon".

Is it that hard a word to spell?

I thought Herculean just meant you had to be dead strong to do it. What particular labour is that in reference to?

I thought Hercules did a pretty good job of wrapping things up.

I cry every time a sub-editor lets a sports journalist get away with using "literally" when he's actually being metaphorical.

Compliment.

Complement.

Completely different words.

I thought he'd deliberately switched them. Perhaps I am giving Mr Shortt too much credit.

I just stayed at a Holiday Inn over the weekend. And in one of the written materials they leave in the room, they used "everyday" instead of "every day". Big difference between the two.

Also caught someone using "effecting" instead of "affecting".

"Clippertonian" - using different semantics to describe identical situations, creating a false impression of distinction

The difference is I LITERALLY do cry.

Mucking out the Augean stables. By the time you shoveled all the shit out of the last stable, the first one had filled up again.

The difference is that Herculean tasks never appear to get any closer to completion, whereas Sisyphean ones do. (And yeah, "Herculean" does mean you have to be dead strong to do it, but it's the closest Classical thing I can think of to what people mean when they use "Sisyphean" wrongly.)

Uh, what tense do you use on 'dry' if it's a type unspecified method?

I think that's, "Can this be dried?" as "Can this be dry?" is non-sensical.

I don't recall seeing "Herculean" used in that specific way before, but it makes sense, especially if you consider another of his tasks, killing the Lernaean Hydra, which grew two new heads for each one that was severed.

No, you're overthinking it. Sisyphean has a very specific reference to the stone always rolling back down embedded in its meaning. Ergo, it describes something that is always ultimately futile. The "nearness to completion" has nothing to do with it - it's about futililty.

Herculean doesn't just refer to the Stables task. It refers, in part, to the entire set of Trials. More broadly, though, it's just a way to reference the incredible - nigh superhuman - effort required to do the shit that Herc did. It describes something that's really, really - near impossibly - difficult.

Because it's not.

No, I just made it up. I think there is a useful distinction to be made between the two types of futile task though, so if there is a proper word I'd like to hear it.

I'm pretty sure that "tumble-dried" would be the correct form in the first place. Another example is "I blew dry my hair" versus "I blow-dried my hair." The original poster seems to be insisting that "dry" is being used in it's adjective role, but it seems pretty clear that it's actually acting as a verb, making these an example of the somewhat uncommon verb-verb compound.

Yeah, I was gonna hunt around to see if there was a formal term for this construct, but I'm lazy.

Alas, I don't think English has found a need yet to make this distinction.

English is probably still bitter that its efforts in the 'lesser' and 'fewer' area have gone largely ignored and is staging a non-violent protest.

No, you're using it incorrectly. It means "of or pertaining to a two-fisted, devil-may-care, lantern-jawed bon vivant with a full head of luxuriant, wavy hair".

(Or do I mean "luxurious"?)

I always get that wrong.

Personal bugbear is when being asked to supply documentation for multiple shipments people request Bill of ladings. They want Bills of lading.

Herculean...tough but can be done. Sisyphean...tough and can't be done.

I like to picture Sysiphys on his coffee break with a samovar reaching up into the heavens and a demitasse cup.

The labours of Hercules were a penitential task set by the Oracle of Delphi for the crime of killing his wife and child - but they were a finite set of trials that were meant to be overcome.

Sisyphus, on the other hand, was in Tartarus being punished in perpetuam with a task that was continuously reset (much like the punishment of Prometheus - constantly having his liver torn out - or, crossing mythos, Loki being chained and having venom dripped into his eyes for ever) for the crimes of betraying Zeus and tricking Thanatos. This bollocking endured (endures?) forever.

Spelling "deus ex Machina" as "deus de machina" or "deux de machina."

Spelling R.E.M., when referring to the band, as REM.