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I've seen "comprised of" several times in various news reports recently.

Thanks, jono, @129. Careless of me, especially as I have done it successfully before.

I am about to write to Feedback in 'The Times' about their use in today's column of 'cater to' as in '...catered to in French by tu and vous'.

That usage irritates me, but am I justified in insisting on 'cater for'?

Paul

Yes, fully justified. The Times keeps getting it wrong. On Thursday, in Robson's bridge column, he wrote:

"Sitting North, my partner opened....", which clearly means his partner was North. It was very confusing as I could not work out who was what. In fact, his partner was South.

If he has said, "I was sitting North, when my partner opened…", it would have been clear. His columns are excellent, despite the sloppy English.

I’m reminded that this “ / “ is a slash and that this “ \ “ is a backslash. The term “forward slash” is a retronym which came about following the use of the backslash in computer programming and need only be used in instances where it is necessary to distinguish the two.

Newsreaders always say “forward slash” when reading out web addresses when “slash” would suffice.

jigjag @132
The subject changing over the course of the sentence is quite common, and always confusing!

Thanks for the confirmation, jigjag@132.

Yes, excellent bridge columns by Robson but he is also a frequent user of 'cater to...'. As in '...catering to North having four spades...'

Paul

...and another "cater to" today!

Swarbrules, Tyke

Re batsmen/batters: The MCC thought that "batters" would please women, but we have continued to use batsmen. We also talk about "third man", "putting another man on the leg-side" etc. "Man" is a neutral word, so we say we are "a man short". It applies to men's and ladies sport.

It was interesting to read Geoffrey Boycott on the art of batsmanship. I suppose the MCC wants us to say "battership" or "batspersonship".

The commentary on the India v S. Africa game was ridiculous. We were told that "there is a person on the boundary on the off-side for an edge", and later, "there is a person by the umpire". We were not told if these persons were fieldsmen or spectators.

What is wrong with "third man" and "square leg"?

Grunger
Very pleased you still use third man & batsman ... as you say the terms are neutral. We often have a seagull patrolling at third man during games at Scarborough!
Hope you're still playing!

Tyke

I hope your seagulls are better behaved than Lancs ones. I am often attacked at the seaside over here. Chips and ice cream are the favourite targets.