Subscribing to an Idea

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Lydia Casarda. I’m calling from Temecula, California.

Hi, Lydia. Welcome to the program.

Hi.

Thank you.

You know, my husband and I are actually very competitive when it comes to trivia, and I think our children have witnessed some brutal jeopardy, you know, competition between the two of us.

And one of that sort of pressing, not pressing, but kind of a long battle between us has been the word subscribe.

And he is claiming that I’m using the word incorrectly when I say something along the lines of, oh, that’s an idea that I subscribe to.

And he’s telling me I can’t subscribe to an idea.

What are his authorities?

What?

Yeah, you know, exactly.

And, I mean, he’s like, you know, that’s not applicable for that.

You’re not using it correctly at all.

Is he just pulling this out of thin air, or does he have some supporting data for this?

Well, I have to say this about my husband, too.

He’s terrific about arguing.

I mean, he’s almost frustrating because he has too much time to think about the argument or something.

I don’t really know.

We have four-year-old twins.

I don’t know how that’s possible.

Yeah, and so, you know, I mean, he’ll come back at me with some things, and they make sort of sense when he’s talking about it, but later on I’m thinking, what?

What just happened?

Yeah, so this is our dilemma, and I’m dying to know who’s correct.

So you married a bologna artist and you want us to fix it.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

He’s a well-spoken bologna artist.

Oh, okay.

Maybe you say prosciutto.

Prosciutto would be a higher level.

I see.

But still lots of prosciutto.

Lots and lots and lots of it, right?

Exactly.

With some capers and lemon even or something, you know?

Okay, okay.

That’s another show.

That’s good.

That’s good.

Food, you can’t go wrong.

Great.

You can certainly subscribe to an idea.

Why not?

I don’t understand what his argument even is.

He’s wrong.

He’s patently, clearly, 100%, provably, demonstrably, factually wrong.

This is so fabulous.

But the question is, will he accept our authority?

Maybe just put it this way.

If he won’t accept our authority, tell him there is no style guide in English that agrees with him.

None of them.

They don’t even address it.

Even the most hardline, most conservative style mavens don’t even bother with this because there’s no question that you can use subscribe to mean to follow an opinion or to agree with a point of view.

Sure, to endorse heartily.

Yeah, yeah.

I’m doing the happy dance.

So now he has to take care of the twins for a couple weeks all on his own, right?

While you go on a vacation or something?

I subscribe to that.

Yes, I do.

Indeed.

Well, we’re glad we could help.

Well, thank you very much. I so appreciate your settling this long decade of a topic.

A decade? Wow!

A decade, yeah.

Oh, you put up with too much, Lydia.

Yeah, well, that’s another story, too.

Thanks for calling.

Thank you.

All right, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

You know, Grant, it could be that he read someplace about a scribe.

Oh, it’s possible.

You know, like you ascribe human characteristics to your smartphone that is bothering you and frustrating you.

I sometimes do that.

And people use that incorrectly.

How do they use it wrong?

They say, I ascribe to the idea that such and such.

Oh, I see.

That’s possible.

It could be that you got confused there.

But I think we had a happy caller on our hands.

It’s always nice to make people happy.

Lydia’s husband, give us a call if you want to argue about it.

We will happily engage.

If you have a question about language or a dispute you’d like to settle, call us 1-877-929-9673 or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.