Wordwizard

Those meanings are possible and I thought about them. However, a good writer should offer, if possible, an unambiguous rendition of his/her thoughts, thus I chose one of those meanings and focused on its best possible expression. Why replace the clear sentences that you have mentioned with a "good-f...

I'd use

In the first days of the project, whenever I saw him, he seemed happy.

Two commas or none at all. Same meaning.

tony h wrote:would go for:

I talked to that mayor's cousin. The cousin who had a scar on his forehead

Much better.

This is how it should be done, IMO:

He was U.S. ambassador to Japan from 1977 to 1988, the longest serving ambassador to that country ever.

He was U.S. ambassador to Japan from 1977 to 1988, the longest serving ambassador to that country during his tour of service.

tony h wrote:maybe:

mount a camera top and bottom

Love the conciseness.

Then: "Mount the top and the bottom camera" is OK, even though I'd prefer: "Mount the top and the bottom camera s " Other solutions: "Mount the top camera, [and] then the bottom one" "Mount first the top camera, [and] then the bottom one" "The top camera should be mounted first, [and] then the botto...

Describe once at the beginning the camera setup.

After that, just
"mount the cameras"
should do the job.

Thank you, everyone. Your being challenged by others challenged my thoughts on the matter (or should I say shook me in my summer boots?). :-)

>Could they be used in a 'neutral' context, ie. when one really had no idea how many prizes he had won? Getting obfuscating here: The only-god-knows-whether-he-won-any-prizes man entered the room. The did-he-win-any-prizes man entered the room. The man whose number of prizes was a question mark ente...

He pushed the cart a lot. doesn't quite make a clear/precise sense by itself. Meaning doesn't grow in a vacuum. It may mean 1a-He pushed it hard. in this context He pushed that cart a lot: you could see his sweat pouring down his face and back. It may mean 1b-He pushed it far. for He pushed that ca...

Wizard of Oz wrote:.. Jerry I'm with you on that one .. from clearly carries the idea that they are going out together outside of the office .. at on the other hand means just that >> they are AT the office .. is it just an American thing?? ..

WoZ who used to know where it's at

Glad to hear that :-)

Just about 1 and 2, I think they both may mean they meet, or even "do it," at the office. For the intended meaning, indicating where the woman works, "from" should be used, if lack of ambiguity is desired: The Primary Care Physician's Guide to Common Psychiatric Phillip R. Slavney, ‎Orest Hurko - 20...

These are indeed correct ones: That equation had slipped my memory. That equation had slipped from my memory. For the 2nd cf. "Nothing that happened to me during that delightful time," Rousseau writes of his stay with "Maman" at Les Charmettes, nothing that I did, said, or thought all the while it l...

Plainly speaking, 1 and 2 are awkward/unnatural. 3 is the only one really heard out there. More compact: The man with god knows how many prizes entered the room. or hyphenated: The man with god-knows-how-many prizes entered the room. cf. "I asked Bela why a man with God-knows-how-many hundreds of st...

I have found an earlier use of the phrase 'throws caution to the winds'. Richard Rolle (circa 1290-1349) wrote a prayer that starts Come to us, O Christ, as the wind that blows the autumn leaves ... It concludes as follows: ...desire for you that is unrestrained and a yearning for you that throws c...