People in serious need of a dictionary

[snopes]

Comment: Your latest message mentioned the word "untold" referring to
money. I believe the word should be "untolled", as in not counted.
Please check it out & be more careful in the future.

[snopes]

Comment: the title of the legend makes no sense at all;literally, it does
not mean anything. This is the title:
Horrific events put paid to a cheating husband's alibi.

[Esprise Me]

A few years ago, when you could send email instantly but you still had to walk waaaaaay over to the bookshelf to get down the eight-pound dictionary and flip through its million delicate little pages to look up a word (assuming you even owned a dictionary) I could sort of understand where people like this were coming from. But now, you can have a dictionary in your freakin' toolbar! It could not possibly be simpler! What on earth is wrong with these people?

Gah, sorry, I've spent the whole day surrounded by idiots. I think I sprained my patience.

[snopes]

Comment: On the page http://www.snopes.com/love/betrayal/surpriseparty.asp
which is called "Birthday Suited," I noticed a spelling/word usage error.
The twentieth word in the third paragraph in the "Origins" section should
be written as "desserts", but it is actually written as "deserts". I hope
you will take the time to fix this mistake. Thank you.

[Chloe]

I once used flyers to advertise a university course on gender in the Middle Ages, part of the blurb of which mentioned "the status of women in the Middle Ages." I used varying images to go with it, and on one featuring an sculpture of the Virgin Mary, someone helpfully corrected the spelling to "the statues of women..."

[NorthernLite]

Would angel food cake qualify as just desserts? And if so, would devil's food cake be unjust desserts?

[Ieuan ab Arthur]

Hi All:

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: On the page http://www.snopes.com/love/betrayal/surpriseparty.asp which is called "Birthday Suited," I noticed a spelling/word usage error. The twentieth word in the third paragraph in the "Origins" section should be written as "desserts", but it is actually written as "deserts". I hope you will take the time to fix this mistake. Thank you.

The truly sad thing is that there is a link on the words "just deserts" in the article above to the article explaining that "just deserts" is the correct form.

Ta ra 'wan,

Ieuan "There are none so blind that will not click" ab Arthur

[Tantei Kid]

My former stepmother was a top-notch semi-professional editor and she swore that it was "just desserts". I kinda got the cold(er) shoulder for a while after pointing it out.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Ieuan ab Arthur

The truly sad thing is that there is a link on the words "just deserts" in the article above to the article explaining that "just deserts" is the correct form.

Tell me about it. We got so many corrections/complaints about our alleged misspelling of "just deserts" that I wrote an article explaining the correct form. We still got a bunch of corrections/complaints, so Barbara went through the site and made sure that our every use of the term was also a hyperlink pointing to that article. But we still regularly get corrections/complaints ...

- snopes

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: the title of the legend makes no sense at all;literally, it does
not mean anything. This is the title:
Horrific events put paid to a cheating husband's alibi.

I was going to question this as well, until I searched Google for "put paid to". It's a phrase I'd never heard in my 37 years.

According to this page, there's a distinct possibility that you won't know what it means unless you're British.

I don't think a dictionary would've helped the author of the original comment. A search engine would've been a better choice.

[snopes]

Comment: YOU OFTEN REFER TO THE U. S. (UNITED STATES) AS AMERICA.
AMERICA, IT IS ON/PART OF, BUT AMERICA...IT IS NOT. IT IS THE UNITED
STATES OR U.S. IT IS NOT AMERICA; AMERICA STRETCHES FROM THE ARCTIC TO
THE ANT-ARCTIC.

[One-Fang]

I'm not sure what this one's doing here. Isn't that comment correct? The larger country in the northern part of the continent of America is often referred to as "America", but geographically/politically speaking, it is the United States of America. America is a continent.

I mean, it's pedantic. It's not like nobody knows who you mean. But still ... it's right, isn't it?

[Tootsie Plunkette]

But there is more than one "United States" and in the past there have been even more.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by One-Fang

I mean, it's pedantic. It's not like nobody knows who you mean. But still ... it's right, isn't it?

No. Not only is it not incorrect to use the word "America" to refer to the country known as the United States of America, but that usage is in fact the primary meaning of the word.

- snopes

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: Your latest message mentioned the word "untold" referring to
money. I believe the word should be "untolled", as in not counted.
Please check it out & be more careful in the future.

Yeah Snopes, we'd hate for you to look like an ass. Just look it up in any dictionary.... I dare you!

Lookie "un*tolled [uhn-tohled] -adjective not numbered or enumerated; uncounted: This comment caused me untolled amounts of laughter!" Lu

Originally Posted by snopes

No. Not only is it not incorrect to use the word "America" to refer to the country known as the United States of America, but that usage is in fact the primary meaning of the word.

- snopes

Maybe. But if you ever cross the border from Canada, don't tell the customs agent you're an american when asked your citizenship. They like you to be a little more specific.

[Stan The Man]

Originally Posted by Grey

Maybe. But if you ever cross the border from Canada, don't tell the customs agent you're an american when asked your citizenship. They like you to be a little more specific.

Crossing into "America" at Niagra Falls, the customs guy asked of me, "American?". I answered "Yes", and he waved me through.

Originally Posted by Stan The Man

Crossing into "America" at Niagra Falls, the customs guy asked of me, "American?". I answered "Yes", and he waved me through.

Every time I've crossed from Canada to Michigan, they've asked "Citizenship?".

[Stan The Man]

Originally Posted by Grey

Every time I've crossed from Canada to Michigan, they've asked "Citizenship?".

Of course, my experience was pre-9/11. They are likely more thorough nowadays.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Grey

Maybe. But if you ever cross the border from Canada, don't tell the customs agent you're an american when asked your citizenship. They like you to be a little more specific.

I've crossed the U.S.-Canadian border many times, and I've never encountered an instance of a Canadian Customs/Immigration official considering a response of "American" to be insufficient.

- snopes