For those who wonder why the misuse of “decimate” makes me so angry, imagine the current misconception of the word’s meaning transposed to it’s origins. I’m talking about a group of ten legionaries marching through hostile territory. Suddenly *thwack* one of them is felled by an arrow.
Brutus looks down at his fallen comrade and says “Oh no, we’ve been decimated.” And his mate Cassius looks at the one dead guy… let’s call him Flavius, I think it helps the story come alive when the characters have names. Not to mention I prefer to be on a first name basis with anyone living in my head.
Anyway, Cassius looks down at Flavius and says: “What, that’s it? One dead guy and we’re decimated? Really? I mean, the way everyone always goes on about being decimated I thought it would be way worse. Of course, it didn’t work out too well for Flavius but this decimated thing isn’t too bad.
“I used to lie awake at night worrying about us being decimated and now here we are, decimated, and nine out of ten of us are fine and dandy.”
And yes, I’m sure Roman legionaries used words like “dandy”.
Angry 365 Days a Year 
Ok we get it, you don’t like the misuse of this word. Understood! 🙂
Maybe you wont be so angry if you weren’t always “Find[ing]” things to be angry about. Then again, that would defeat the purpose of this blog, which just by the by, I really like reading.
hey can you, make a “recent comments” section on your sidebar? It’ll make it easier to track which comments you’ve responded to. thanks. (this can be done through the widgets section)
Thanks maryam and thanks for the tip somethingtobe. I’ll work on that in my lunch hour. Having only been at this a few weeks, I’m gradually working out how to customise things.
Oh, and maryam, the sad things I find about a dozen things a day to be angry at… I don’t think I’m going to run out of them in the next year.
wow, how can you be so angry all the time Mr Angry? I’ll die of shock the day you post about something that made you happy 🙂
ps: somethingtobe and Maryam are the same person, check the url they link to.
You see maryam, I’m not only angry I’m thick as well. Without you to help me I’d be lost. Thanks again for the tips, for adding me to your blogroll and welcom to mine 🙂
tehehe its not a problem at all. Thick and angry. Volatile combination.
ps: i have work to do but i’d rather be blogging.