This is war
Blogging has been slow because of heavy exam pressure and a revision for a paper due Monday. I am at war with the editor over this bit: “there is evidence that a substantial proportion of their customers approves of them”. He tells me it should be approve, not approves. But the noun is “proportion”, which is singular. Phooey. I would be less warlike, except his comment was “Grammar!” I am not sure whether I am more unhappy about being wronged by the reprimand, or by the exclamation remark. As one writer put it, the exclamation mark is to be used only in conversation, and then only by someone who has been recently disembowelled.