A good question

Popular wisdom allows us to become intellectually lazy. A classic case of pop-wiz is the use of the phrase ‘That’s a very good question.’
Delivered in Q&A session, generally after the speaker has finished his/her speech, the phrase is blatant use of linguistic bribery to keep the audience in check.
It usually describes the dumbest question or, rather, the question the speaker most expects or is most ready answer.
A good question will leave the speaker confounded and expose hypocrisy or factual error, or ideally criminal intent. Remember, if they cut to a commercial, the question was good.

A WTF moment

I just had a WTF moment. A colleague, who I have the greatest respect for in terms of domain knowledge, but who, frankly cannot speak or write English better than me, pointed out a grammatical mistake involving a ‘transient verb.’ Right enough, I went WTF! Mind you, this guy cannot speak better than me, or write, but ‘knows’ the English language more than I will ever care to.
I promptly went to Google and have since added to my repertoire the understanding of the transient verb. Whether I will be able to recognize one now remains to be seen.

Overpunctuated

I have never been one for the technical aspect of language. Etymology fascinates me but that’s it. As a serious writer surely all aspects of language must be given a serious look at. Grammar is my biggest nemesis. Don’t ask me subject, verb or predicate, because I don’t know. Recently, recognizing that if I ever did win the Booker, it would be handy to know some Grammar, I embarked upon a book called Eats Shoots and Leaves. It’s an absolutely brilliant book on punctuation. I love punctuation now. To the point, where, if you notice, I might overpunctuate myself.