mini language rant

People who begin a paragraph by writing "Too"-- with a comma-- should be dragged out and shot.

Oh, yeah-- about people who misuse "anymore": folks, that's a word that should only appear in negative and interrogative constructions. The term you're probably looking for is something like "these days" or "nowadays" or "lately." "There're a lot of people in the stores anymore" makes my ears bleed.

I'm aware that the above misuse of "anymore" qualifies as "dialect" in certain corners. In other words, the guilty parties are aware of the misuse and would never write sentences abusing "anymore." My feeling is that some regional turns of phrase are cute, ungrammatical though they be, while others serve only to grate. "Anymore," misused, is one of the latter types. There's nothing cute about it, as far as I'm concerned.

Correct:

Does Big Bad Bill come around anymore?
Jill doesn't eat chocolate anymore.
Kevin's not as ornery anymore.

Incorrect:

It's gotten windier anymore.
Kevin's ass is bigger anymore.

Be careful: "anymore" is different from "any more."

Example:

I don't want any more tea.

This makes me want to rant about the widespread confusion of "everyday" with "every day," but I've done that rant several times elsewhere. Some folks who call themselves English teachers routinely make these basic mistakes. For shame!

Thank you for your time. I'll crawl back into my cave now.

_