The very best advantage in gambling, as in literature, may lie in not playing at all. But if play you must, bet all and win...

War of Words Language bullies

This is ironic. Language bullying -- or prescriptivism, as it's more politely called -- is conservative in the worst sense. It advances a stuffy and old-fashioned view of language, the rules of which it considers set by supposed experts, such as the authors of grammar books, rather than common usage. It is deeply anti-populist and snobby, not to mention just plain wrong and cranky. There are good reasons to criticize Bush. But holding his -- or anyone else's -- grammar to dubious standards isn't one of them.
Most rules cited by bullies are highly suspect. We're told to stop the widespread practice of splitting the infinitive, as in the old Star Trek line, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
· Boldly [NationalPost]