Seen on the local TV news at lunchtime - a stuffed shirt with the job title "Public Service Portfolio Holder" pontificating about the cost of fire services - so, my rates pay for some guy to stand around holding a folder, do they?

Watch the clip here. (Requires RealAudio player).

(My first silly job title is noted in this post.)

English is constantly evolving, and we see it in action over the renaming of public schools as private schools. I am not sure how long this has been going on - but it is very noticeable on the BBC (which I imagine has an office of approved words to go along with the pronunciation bureau). Especially now that education is in the political spotlight - the Tories are tearing themselves to pieces over grammar schools and New Labour is insisting that non-state schools should do more for their charitable status (apart from taking people out of the state system for which they've already paid).

Since 1364, public school has been used to denote any school to which a child might go upon payment of the necessary fees, irrespective of where he (and it usually was 'he' until more recently) lived, or of his religion. (Contrasted with private tuition within the home). And the term was well understood by most people in connection with the old established schools like Harrow, Eton, Rugby and so on.

So - are we now considered too stupid to understand the distinction? Or is it an attempt to whip up feeling against something to which we cannot all aspire (like private healthcare)?

And it isn't only the woolly liberals at the BBC: even that conservative publication The Telegraph has started using the term too - which really did surprise me.

M Sarkozy wants people to use the formal vous rather than the informal tu when addressing each other, to get more respec', man.

Well - we did that some time in the 17th or 18th century according to Wikipedia. So there.

(For those who can't be bothered to follow that up, "you" is the equivalent of "vous", and "thee" of "tu". Using the formal pronoun seems not to have increased respect in England, however.)

Here you go - a fresh dollop of words for you, on which to practise your grammar, punctuation and proof-reading skills:

"The FSB North Dorset Branch event at The Gryphon Centre, Sherbourne, 5 June 2007 7 for 7.30 p.m.

Sally Lever is a downshifting and sustainable living coach, specialising in working withpeople whoare leaving the Rat Race for a more sustainable existence.She writes articles, leads workshops and teleclasses and offers personal coaching to inspire and supportothers in finding a less stressful, more meaningful and fulfilling way of life. Sally's coaching practice is the forth smallbusiness that she has run andher experience in training and education spans 18 years.http://www.sallylever.co.uk/"

Fortunately, Ms Lever apparently has a rather better eye for detail than the clown who rushed out this FSB email. But isn't it fascinating what obscure jobs are around these days that no-one had thought of even ten years ago? If Douglas Adams had written the HHG today, he would not only need a B Ark, but a D, E, and possibly F Ark as well!

"Pay attention not only to the arrangement of the food itself but to the context that you put it in including the plate or bowel and any table settings around it." - from Food Photography, an Introduction, at the Digital Photography School

It is easy enough to make a mistake* in blogland (I do it myself) - but to have comments pointing out the mistake over two months ago and doing nothing to correct is just a trifle lazy or complacent. And anyway, the mental juxtaposition of food and bowels is just plain yucky (even if one is necessary to digest the other).

(* One that proofing rather than a spellchecker would pick up.)

Read the whole article - which is otherwise informative and nicely illustrated, here.

"The guillotine was invented in Halifax in Yorkshire in the 16th century. The French Revolution's Dr Guillotin did not invent the device; he merely recommended its use to the National Assembly. His ancestors changed their name to avoid being associated with the machine." - QI column, Telegraph Weekend, 12th May

Obviously, he invented a time machine though. Otherwise, how could his ancestors have retrospectively changed their names? (And why did he revert to the old one?)

As I have pointed out before, it is a bit odd that a column devoted to interesting facts seems to get it wrong more often than one might hope for. Perhaps they should save up for a sub-editor to check these things a bit more carefully? Especially in the edition of E facts that includes Errors.

On BBC's Working Lunch today, the quaintly-named Blaire Palmer was introduced as an author of self-help books and "an executive coach" . Funny that - sometimes they overtake me on the motorway when I am pootling along in my old banger. Who'd have thought they could write books as well as transport well-dressed senior citizens on luxury outings?

Visit Ms Palmer's web site for a real jargonfest. Read it and snigger - or possibly be empowered and creativised. (Do you think we should tell her that someone has scribbled on it?)

I did a double-take opening a courier envelope today: on the flap, it says:

TEAR ALONG PERFORATATED EDGE PACKING SLIP ENCLOSED

- I wonder if the person who made the artwork wept when (if) they realised they now had 500,000 envelopes with a typo?

I can speak from personal experience that it's much easier to see others' mistakes. More than once when I worked for ICL, I'd get my finished manuals back from the printer, and after flipping through a few pages, spot a typo that was previously invisible during my painstaking proofing of the galleys!

Of course, in these days of electronic publishing, this isn't so common, but back in the 70s and 80s, we really did cut and paste with scissors and glue, and once committed to print, things stayed that way till all the copies were used up.

Funnily enough, I spotted another stray 'at' in the Telegraph money section, where someone was said to be 'flirtating' with an idea. English spelling is full of such heffalump traps: 'rotation' and 'rotating' is OK, but 'flirtation' and 'flirtating' is not. (If you go to the root verbs - rotate and flirt - you can see why of course, but I doubt the average journo worries too much about etymology when rushing to get copy finished. But don't they use spellcheckers?)

Which reminds me of Terry Pratchett's character Nanny Ogg, who 'knew how to start spelling "banana," but didn't know how you stopped' - hence her assertion that Bananana dakry is basicly Rum with a banananana in it.