please empty your brain below

To pedanticise against one of your pedants, the highest points in London boroughs do indeed change over history, not because the topography of the land changes, but because the boundaries of the boroughs change. Just for example, the highest point in Southwark was in the borough of Camberwell until 1965, and the highest point in Southwark was thus somewhere else.
So are there any consistent offenders in pedantry? One would suspect that Pedant of Purley would be up there somewhere, but is there a 'top three'? Inquiring minds want to know!

Also, some readers really need to come to terms with 'poetic license' at times ...
So, DG, would you prefer fewer comments?

dg writes: Occasionally I'd like to get away with less comments.
Glad to see I made the cut :)
The first one is priceless!

Pedantic note on pedantic note: BP *is* the current legal name of the company formerly known as British Petroleum.
It's just one of many long established companies that having become multinational and gone through various mergers and acquisitions would prefer to downplay their origins and heritage.
e.g. the shipbuilders with the fantastic name 'Vosper Thornycroft' changed their name to 'VT Group'. Disgraceful! ;)
Would it be pedantic to say I thought it was Pedantic of Purley rather than Pedant of Purley?
@ popartist ... probably ... but shsssssh, let the man himself jump on it :). Actually, my mistake had grammatical origins. I meant to write '*the* Pedant of Purley', (signifying his importance within the cabal of the art of pedantry), but I left out an article (the)! I spoke about poetic license above, maybe this is poetic justice?
@popartist. Grrrr, you beat me to it.
interesting that dg chose to leave the typos, if any, in these pedantic comments. I don't wish to criticise, such errors don't affect the facts,and comments can't be altered after posting.
Before becoming the anonymous, generic 'VT Group', they rejoiced in the name of 'Vosper Thorneycroft'. With a distinctive bonus 'E' in their second name.
How strange no one has "asked for their money back". I make this suggestion to all those people who bitch about the changes Facebook makes to its services.
This is pure DG gold. Please make it a regular feature.
To appear twice in your post above is indeed an honour.
Belated congratulations on your 6000th post, by the way. Your industry is an inspiration to those of us who toil away in the lesser well known parts of the interwebnet.
@antipodean
Shouldn't that be poetic licence?
I was musing over whether to point out that it should be either Pedant's Corner or Pedants' Corner but then decided that in the modern world it is often regarded as acceptable to drop the possessive apostrophe.
I am genuinely surprised that today's apostrophelessness went without comment for more than ten hours.

Thank you, PoP, for picking me up.
.....and I'm honoured by both being featured as one of the pedants, and being taken to task by a pedantic point (indeed the first) in these very comments.
Is pedantry an offence? I usually find it a source of entertainment and enlightenment. It's reassuring to know that people care. Private Eye addressed the apostrophe conundrum by settling for 'Pedantry Corner'.
When Private Eye added a Pedants section to their letters page a few years ago, there was a debate lasting several issues as to exactly how the title should be spelt: Pedant's Corner, Pedants' Corner or Pedants Corner. There was quite a strong view that it was a corner for or perhaps containing pedants, rather than one possessed by them, so no apostrophe was required. In the end the problem was solved by calling it Pedantry Corner, a title it retains to this day.
And it's funny how some the pedantic comments could also end up Pseud's Corner!
When I read the post it seemed to be a little like a random selectio of comments, as just about all DG comments have an air of pedantry to me...
" am genuinely surprised that today's apostrophelessness went without comment for more than ten hours.

Thank you, PoP, for picking me up."

You missed your chance at "Well done for picking up the deliberate mistake that I included, PoP, just to make sure that you are all still awake!"

This is, of course, the teacher's last defence, although I am sure that I will get told that this is 'defense'.
My favourite trick when online debates descend into insufferable pedantry is to post the comment "nobody like's a pedant", then wait to see how long it takes to be picked up on it.
"dg writes: Occasionally I'd like to get away with less comments."

OK, fair enough.

Sorry to have bother you DG. Plenty more fish in the sea, as they say.

I've deleted you from my bookmarks and purge your email notifications, unsubscribed from your RSS feeds and unfollowed twitter.

No point hanging around where you're not wanted.

B
"dg writes: Occasionally I'd like to get away with less comments."

Surely that should be 'fewer' comments? ?? :) :)

While I am at it, where have all the kittens gone?


Twitter should be capitalised, Brian.
Surely a diamond should be found in pendants corner? And a (whiskey-loving http://goo.gl/Kmp79J) geezer in Scotch Corner?
"would you prefer fewer comments?

dg writes: Occasionally I'd like to get away with less comments"

A subtle distinction.
and on the list too!










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