Sam in St. Charles, Illinois, says that when he mentioned a big old water tower nearby, his mother corrected him, saying the water tower wasn’t old, it was new. Can’t you use big old or big ol’ in that way? Of course you can! The addition of old or ol’ just makes a phrase like that more dramatic and emphatic. It’s not really about the age of the tower. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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