First of all I’d like to say a big thank you to all of you for your generosity. The book tokens are already being put to very good use: my most recent purchases are Iron Kingdom by Christopher Clark, which is all over German bookshops at the moment under the title Prussia, as it is, indeed, a history of Prussia. And the other one I bought was Who’s Who in the Bible, a work of reference for all those of us who no longer regularly read the book of books. And I’m checking through the programme at the Cinemax more carefully now!
Talking of holidays, I found a couple of interesting articles by a British newspaper editor who is based in America, and writes about the Americanisms that really annoy him. One of them is the phrase “Happy Holidays”, which is the politically correct form of Merry Christmas, because it’s not safe to assume that the person you’re speaking to is necessarily Christian. Others that he dislikes are “Have a Nice Day”, or “I’d like to use your bathroom”. Have a look at the piece here, and then there is also another one where he has put together annoying Britishisms, including my pet hate: “at the end of the day”. Neither of them mention the over-use of ‘like’, as in “I, like, don’t know what to say, like.” It’s used as a like, filler for when you’re like stuck for words, and “I’m like” has almost replaced “I said” or “I thought”, as in “I’m like, what was that?” (Duh?).
