An unusual escape

One Friday, at a previous job, someone I'd never seen sat down by the receptionist's desk and started chatting up a storm.  After she left, a co-worker asked the receptionist, "I take it she's a friend of yours?"  "No," the receptionist replied.  "She's a salesperson.  I asked her to come back Monday."

I always wondered if the salesperson came back.  Luckily for the receptionist, our company moved across town that weekend.

Sylvia saw the light...

...and it put her in a trance:

She then started speaking in tongues.  I didn't know cats did that.  More than nine years later, she still hasn't told me what that was all about.

Before court...

...Even before hearing a case, Judge Sammy still looked judicial.  In Spring 2011, before court was in session, he stopped to gather his thoughts.

A linguistic irritant XXIX

I hate the taste of raw celery.  If I were expressing this sentiment incorrectly, I'd say it's one of my least favorite foods.  Raw celery, however, has never been and will never be one of my favorite foods.  Therefore, it's one of the foods I dislike most--not one of my least favorites.

The executive tabby gets the big chair...

...I'm still not sure what job Sylvia held in 2008, but given her executive chair, it must have been important:

A linguistic irritant XXVIII

By chance, in the last two days, I've read and seen three references to ice cream and pizza places as parlors.  I know, once upon a time, "parlor" was a more common term.  Whenever I see it today, though, I grind my teeth and think, "Don't call it an ice cream parlor!  Don't call it a pizza parlor!  That's stodgy and archaic.  The word, 'place,' is sufficient."

A linguistic irritant XXVII

Whenever anyone says an event is "slated to begin" at a certain time, I think, "Why not just say, 'It will begin' at the scheduled time?  Admittedly, 'slated to begin' is usually more accurate.  A meeting scheduled for 10:00 might actually start at 9:58 or 10:03.  Still, "will begin" is more concise and sounds more natural.