So I have to refer to my own post #40 which was so subtle (but incorrect) that everyone missed it.

It's its and it's that drives me bananas.  Or does it drive I bananas?
 
I'm gonna start a campaign to make 'its' the plural form of 'it', m'wuhahahaa!

craigb
We all know what BS is, MS is just More of the Same, and PhD is just Piled Higher and Deeper. 

Old joke! We were hearing that at UCSB in 1982 ... you need some rejuvenating in your jokes!

At the risk of starting a UK versus US free-for-all, it's always annoyed me when Americans say "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less." It's blatantly wrong.
 
If you're trying to emphasize how little you care, saying that you could care less hardly achieves that end.

sharke
At the risk of starting a UK versus US free-for-all, it's always annoyed me when Americans say "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less." It's blatantly wrong.
 
If you're trying to emphasize how little you care, saying that you could care less hardly achieves that end.

I guess that all depends on what you mean by it.
 
Rocky

That reminds me of:
 
"It's the least I could do"
 
vs
 
"It's the most I could do"
 
One usually uses the 'least' variant, implying that the recipient was deserving of far more than what one offered, but you could take a more negative slant on it by interpreting it as, "I could easily have done so much more, but I did the absolute minimum".
 
Maybe the American 'care' thing works something like that?

Many years ago, I heard a former athlete (now a sportscaster) providing a running commentary during a basketball game. He cried out, "It's really hotting up in here!" At the time, I attributed this odd turn of phrase to the fact that he was, after all, a former athlete and forming a complete sentence was about all that could be expected of him. Later, I discovered that this is a valid expression in the UK and that I, as a relatively illiterate American was wrong to mock him. 
 
I still think, however, that his usage was not due to his extensive global awareness but was instead caused by stark raving idiocy. 

Moshkito

craigb
We all know what BS is, MS is just More of the Same, and PhD is just Piled Higher and Deeper. 

Old joke! We were hearing that at UCSB in 1982 ... you need some rejuvenating in your jokes!

*Pfft...* I was probably telling it at SDSU (where I was taking a couple of classes) in 1982.  About seven or eight colleges later, when I was working on my PhD (never finished), I'm sure I was still telling the joke!

jamesg1213
Oh yes. Then there's answering every question starting with 'So,' and ending on the upward inflective.
 
'What are you studying at college?'
 
'So, I'm doing media studies?'
 

 

That completely does my head in.
 
Whatever's wrong with the occasional "well..." at the start of a sentence to disguise the fact that one is rapidly trying to form a literate response to a question.
 
Mind you, this current and quite horrible use of "so" seems to be automatic with some. I long for the opportunity to interrogate someone who uses it so* to find out why they use it.
 
I'd put it up there as a grammatical and conversational annoyance with the upward inflection some add at the end of a sentence which makes every statement sound more like a question.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
* I see what I did there

 
 
Not to mention the syntactical abortion that is "A whole 'nother..."
 
Or the quite revolting "Irregardless"