Sir: I am not a person to write letters to
journals. I cringed, but passed over Dot Wordsworth's solecisms on 'like' in your issue of 3 September (Mind your lan- guage). The matter was adequately settled by Bill Todd's gentle response of 10 September (Letters). On 17 September I was mildly shocked to read her catty sideswipe 'like, (which I can't seem to be able to get into some elementary school pedants' heads.') My issue of 24 September bore no reference to 'like', and I had almost forgotten the matter.
But now, in the issue of 1 October, she brings it up again: 'Words "like advertise, devise and surprise" (as Fowler says — note the use of like . )' . Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Clearly her dress- ing-down rankles, but, sadly, she has not learnt from it.
She was wrong on 3 September, she was corrected in a most civilised way on the 10th, she responded with extreme rude- ness on the 17th, and still on 1 October she is resorting to self-justification and re- displaying her ignorance. I suspect she was bad at Latin in school. She is certainly not a sport.
As long as she keeps away from gram- mar, she writes entertainingly, with the help of Fowler (a bit old hat) and the OED. I doubt if you will publish this, but please pass it on to her and ask her to keep quiet about like.
Sue Powell
7 Woodbine Terrace, Leeds
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