{"id":1029,"date":"2015-01-13T15:08:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T02:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2015-01-18T07:44:14","modified_gmt":"2015-01-17T18:44:14","slug":"recommended-holiday-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1029","title":{"rendered":"Recommended holiday reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=1028\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1028\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1028\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Mind-the-Gaffe-292x300.jpg\" alt=\"Mind the Gaffe\" width=\"292\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Mind-the-Gaffe-292x300.jpg 292w, https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Mind-the-Gaffe.jpg 321w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px\" \/><\/a>Shortly before she died, a writer friend gave me a copy of R L Trask\u2019s<strong> Mind the Gaffe: The Penguin Guide to Common Errors in English<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I think that you and Larry will get on very well,\u2019 my friend said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Oh?\u00a0 Why is that?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Well, even though he\u2019s an academic, when it comes to written English he seems to have a strong dislike of both empty waffle and starchy pomposity.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mind the Gaffe<\/strong> is intended as a reference book.\u00a0 The entries are arranged alphabetically, starting with a guide to when to use <em>a<\/em> and when to use <em>an<\/em>, and continuing on for another 293 pages until it arrives at a note on words ending in <em>-yse<\/em> (British English) and words ending in <em>-yze<\/em> (American English).<\/p>\n<p>For the past twelve or so years, this handy blue-covered volume has sat on my desk, along with <strong>The Concise Oxford Dictionary<\/strong> and <strong>The New Fowler\u2019s Modern English Usage.\u00a0 <\/strong>And seldom does a week pass without me dipping into it for clarification of some point or other.\u00a0 What is the difference between <em>dissent<\/em> and <em>dissension<\/em>?\u00a0 When is it preferable to use <em>lengthy<\/em> rather than <em>long<\/em>?\u00a0 And what is the currently preferred spelling of <em>yogurt\/yoghurt\/yoghourt<\/em>?\u00a0 (According to Professor Trask, it\u2019s <em>yogurt<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p>This summer, <strong>Mind the Gaffe<\/strong> has also been one of my most satisfying holiday reads.\u00a0 Over a couple of days, I read it from cover to cover (accompanied by the occasional glass of chilled ros\u00e9).\u00a0 I can thoroughly recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly before she died, a writer friend gave me a copy of R L Trask\u2019s Mind the Gaffe: The Penguin Guide to Common Errors in English. \u2018I think that you and Larry will get on very well,\u2019 my friend said. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1029\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}