Everyone following this Blog knows that I am keen to keep AmerEnglish from these shores. Everyone also knows that such a mission is akin to fighting a losing battle.
I took part in a mini squabble yesterday with Edward Stourton, BBC Radio Presenter. He talked in the Sunday programme yesterday about a regular London bus. I wrote and asked,
Dear Mr Stourton,
On your Sunday programme on Radio 4 today, you talked about a "regular London bus". I would be interested to learn what such a bus looks like and what it does.
Duncan Williamson
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Stourton responded with this,
Well they tend to be large and red and ferry people about (and threaten cyclists like me, but that's another matter)
Kind regards,
Edward Stourton
Of course that wasn’t the response that he should have given so I followed up with,
Thanks for the reply but you will appreciate that my main question was to wonder what made them regular ... as opposed to, let's say, irregular.
You might gather I am an anti AmerEnglish activist.
Duncan
I have had no response to that missive so I have assumed that I have either scored a micro victory or that I have been swatted away as an annoyance.
Why have I persisted with this matter? Well, Stourton has a 2:1 degree in ENGLISH from Cambridge University no less and since he is just about the same age as me, he has had consciously to learn to use the American usage of the word regular in his every day speech.
I will not stop this campaign.
DW
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