OK, so maybe Monday isn't the best day of the week to post blog entries. I thought I would be able to get into a routine if I forced the issue, but it turns out Mondays are just a little bit more hectic than other days of the week. Not to mention I am more tired and less motivated so soon after the weekend. I am thinking Wednesdays or Thursdays may be better blog update days. I'm trying Wednesday this week, and we'll see how well it goes.

Today I want to bring attention to another grammar bugaboo of mine: a particular misuse of the words over and under. It happens all the time --- advertisements hype "over 200 exercises" that can be done on that flexible weight machine in your basement (if only you could make yourself go down there and clean the dust off it), and brochures tell you it takes "under five minutes" to get to their cider mill from the highway. What they really mean is more than and less than.

In fact, over means above, and under means below. If you don't believe me, look the words over and under up in Webster's. Not one of the many variations on each definition contains anything even close to more than or less than.

Now, most untrained minds will not even notice the mistake. But, aside from my snobbish intolerance of misused words, other, more practical issues of clarity could arise from this error, doubling its annoying factor. If I say, "I am under a hundred pounds," do you assume: (a) that I am underweight, or (b) that I am in danger of being squashed by tenuously hanging dumbbells?