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I think it was "Don't cross while lights are flashing", jigjag.

jigjag

I was wondering if Goodness and Mercy followed you all the days of your life.

Luckily I wasn't much struck by Lightning.

Chrise

Thanks, I suppose "whilst" would have avoided the problem

Paul

They were all pleasant children but I only taught them for a year rather than a lifetime. I suppose Lightning had an older brother - Thunder?

malone

I think pedant is a great occupation (for someone else). It's so long ago I can't remember, but on-lne I think you get a drop-down list. Other ? (and what a strange occupation "other" would be)

Rosalind, I believe you are right about the "l" vs. "ll" business. I don't think I'd like to meet a beef twister though.

ChrisE, I am with you on the while only refers to time argument. The other one that almost everyone gets wrong is "since." That also should be used only in the context of time, instead of as a synonym for "because."

Malone, are you ignoring the word, or the device as well?

I cannot agree with you, mathp, on that use of since. The OED says it can mean "because" and it has been regularly used so since at least 1540. Such as this from 1833: You shall have them cheap, since there is but a poor demand for them to-day.

Mathprofrockstar, I ignore both - the word and the device - as much as possible, and that's usually pretty easy. I'm trying to imagine a conversation where I would need to use the word... perhaps reporting to a friend that I couldn't look at the clothes (upstairs in Tesco) as the 'thingy' was broken and I couldn't face the stairs. Yes, that's I
probably how I would tackle it, 'I couldn't look at winter jackets because the thingy was broken'. Sorted - well, where all my local friends are concerned!

Rosalind, any official pedant jobs seem to be highly treasured - and seldom advertised!

I wish the BBC had taken the opportunity to use the proper Shakespearian phrase "All that glisters" for the new jewellery making competition. Glisters is such an evocative word and glitter has at least one unfortunate connotation. Not watching anyway, can't stand the "comedian".

This morning I came across the word "weegee" in an 1840s nautical context -
"The mainmast was cut away, carrying the pump, spears, and weegee"
Apparently this rather nice word can refer to a Glaswegian, a person fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and boasts of it, a paticular photographer or a character in a Super Mario game. None of these seem terribly likely to be swept away in a hurricane, except perhaps the Glaswegian when presumably it would be Weegee.
There is no entry for this in the 502 (since this thread is about pedantry) page book "A Sea of Words", for lovers of Patrick O'Brian's books.
Any (polite) suggestions?

A month or so ago I took out a subscription to the complete OED online as there was a special offer of £90 for a year. Spellings vary but Weegie prevails; it does indeed mean a Glaswegian but that's all apparently. It seems to have been made popular by its occurrence in the 1993 novel Trainspotting.

So I'm very interested to know more about that 1840s nautical reference. I suspect weegee is a different word altogether but one so obscure it's never made it into a dictionary.