It’s winter at the moment where I live in the Mid-Atlantic. There is very little rain this time of year and just enough snow to freak out all the drivers and close schools and cause the government to shut down – which is not appreciably different from any other day, regardless of season. It usually only rains in the spring here. In fact, one May it rained every single weekend but never during the week. This meant nothing to me, but to coworkers with kids in sporting activitie

Confession: It took me until about five years ago to get “it’s” and “its” correct on a consistent basis. It was one of those things that, as I was never really sure, I always found a way to reword my sentences to avoid. (I know you have that word. We all do. You can’t figure it out, so you would rather write 45 other words just to skate around it.) Now that I am fully confident in my understanding of the difference between these two, oh-so-similar troublemakers of the English

Newsflash! I edit a lot of erotic fiction. (Yay, me!) If that’s not where your interests lie, or if you’re reading this at your desk at work, it’s OK with me if you don’t favorite this post. But, if you and I have similar tastes in reading and writing, you know that one of the stickiest wickets (come on, you KNEW I had to go there) in this genre is the difference between “come” and “cum.” I will start with my personal position on this topic. *snickers* I don’t like the word “

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to travel to Asia a few times over the last couple of years. One of my hobbies while traveling is to take pictures of English-language signs in Asian countries, as their translations can be alternately hysterical and insightful. Above is my favorite of the signs I’ve seen on my assorted trips. This sign was positioned next to a staircase with sloped marble sides, and was ostensibly designed to discourage English-speaking tourists from walking

First off, allow me to say, “Hi, Mom (and Mom’s friends…and people I work with at my FT job)! You may want to skip this post.” OK, now that that’s out of the way, onto the meat of today’s topic. ;-) This entry is not actually about orgasms. I know, I know. It’s sad. It’s about one of the most common grammatical errors that I know of: Your vs You’re. I was reading a book the other day – which I won’t call out here: A) because I think my mother is still reading along, and B) be

I got roped into a snorkeling excursion by one of my best friends about three years ago while vacationing in Hawaii. (Actually, I was vacationing and she was working, which meant her office paid for the hotel room. It is in one’s best interest to cultivate friendships like this.) I have a very strong, very irrational fear of fish, so this little day-trip adventure was quite an achievement on her part. Anyway, one of the crew members on the boat had letters tattooed across he