Mosley's one of my continuing favorite authors. He writes one series featuring Socrates Fortlow, who begins his appearances in Mosley's books as a man living on the edge of society. In the latest - THE RIGHT MISTAKE - Fortlow takes significant steps to becoming a full fledged productive leader in his neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles.

What gave me the most delight in reading this book is this paragraph from page 189:

Referring to an important peripheal character "[she] ran . . . . a Dispute Resolution Workshop where gang members and others came to solve their problems hopefully, without resorting to violence."

Read that sentence again. Do you see it?

The word "hopefully" is used correctly. I can't remember the last time I saw or heard correct usage of that much misused, over heard word.

Perhaps I am well on my way to become a full fledged old fogie, but certain lapses of language have begun to bother me much much more than they used to.

One example is "lie" or "lay." Now please don't ask why my sixth grade English teacher is suddenly marching across the back of my brain, pounding this into me and my classmates with every step. But there Mrs Wilson is, and she's no nicer about it now than she was all those years ago in the classroom at Lincoln School. "Lie" is non transitive, and "lay" is transitive. I lay a book on the table. I lay my body down for a nap. But if I go down the hall for a nap, I am going to lie down. NOT lay down.

And one other thing, while I'm on a roll. A secret is not shared "between you and I." A secret is shared "between you and me." Using the preposition "between" changes the case(?) of the pronouns, and "I" is no longer correct. I could come up with as many examples as there are English prepositions, but that wouldn't make for very interesting reading, although it might be a fun exercise for me!

Of course, the more interesting issue in all this is why this kind of stuff bothers me so much, and continues to bother me more as the years go by. I often have to bite my tongue to stop myself from correctly total strangers in conversation when they make a grammatical mistake. I don't have an answer to that question. All I know is that when I read page 189 of Mosley's book, I shouted with delight.