Whiskey versus Whisky. Whiskey is a word with an alternative spelling, whisky. Or maybe it's the other way around. Dictionary.com seems to prefer whiskey. The New York Times stylebook definitively prefers whiskey.
Eric Asimov's correspondents on the subject of whisk(e)y got kind of exercised, there, didn't they? “Last year
I sent you an email to inform you that Scotch whisky has no ‘e,'" Margaret Tong wrote, all indignant-like. Yeah, well, last year I wrote to W inviting him to end the war in Iraq, and fat lot of good that did, either, Mags.
Now, dangling modifiers, those are a serious problem and worthy of shrieking.
LOL, Jolanta!
In Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, it's whiskey alright. But also missionary vanilla : Dr Jack Finch wants some to use as disinfectant, and of which he expects his sister to have a store in the house for fruitcakes.
It sounds like one of those expressions you instantly know to be a southernism without ever having heard it. Except there seems to be no other references to it. Did Harper Lee make it up?
RobertB said
In Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, it's whiskey alright. But also missionary vanilla : Dr Jack Finch wants some to use as disinfectant, and of which he expects his sister to have a store in the house for fruitcakes.
Missionary vanilla sounds more like coitus than ethanol. I recall reading in a book of some woman coming on to a guy, but he relates that he wasn't much interested. She's a Catholic and all she wants is PVF, but he wants a partner who's into kinkier stuff, maybe a Methodist. PVF?, the other guy asked. Plain vanilla fucking, the first guy explains.
Used to date a church secretary, the first guy said. She was into giving and getting head, all sorta of Kama Sutra positions, anal, bukake, pegging, bondage, and she asked if he had a shed or a barn, because she wanted to try bellyriding.
Bellyriding, huh, the other guy asked. Well, it's only a month until Halloween. Maybe you could lease a place to jeep a stallion.
Naah, the first guy said. That was back when I was in Chillicothe. Bestiality is illegal here in Bloomington.