Me no like
Sir: Dot Wordsworth is not, forgive me, comparing like with like (Mind your lan- guage, 3 September).
Robinson Crusoe going about 'like he does in the pantomime' is loose but not bla- tantly bad English. It may be pedantic to insist on 'as he does' but this is the correct form, as in the Southey quotation.
'I feel like an ice-cream' is acceptable but invites the rejoinder, 'You don't look like one.' This is evidence that it is not the best usage.
On the other hand, 'It looks like Eliot got' and, 'It looks like it's going to rain' are in my view abuses of the language springing from pure laziness. It seems self-evident that 'as if Eliot got' and 'as if it's going to rain' are what was meant.
In the Daily Telegraph last November a Cambridge history graduate was quoted as saying, 'It's almost like I don't exist.' This grated on me so much that I sent a letter to the editor remarking on it. It was not print- ed. Heaven help England if our intellectual elite don't know how, or don't bother, to use their own language properly.
I know I am not alone in these views, which I attribute to love and respect for our tongue rather than desire to put anyone down. But am I in such a small minority that you, Sir, will treat this letter with the disdain shown by your colleague on the Daily Telegraph?
Bill Todd
2 Shepcote Crescent, Leeds, West Yorkshire
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