To wonder what mental image people have for 'towing the line'...

[LaFlambeau]

When the correct expression is 'toeing the line'?

No one with me!

I love 'fraudulent slip', someone used it on a thread I read a couple of months back when I was a lurker and I waited ages for you lot to come along but all that happened was someone smirked! Disappointing.

I recently read an admittedly free e-book, which was littered with errors, but two have stuck in my mind...

An unpleasant incident was described as leading to a 'grizzly scene', and later, a character was 'dough-eyed' - took me quote a while to work that one out, but both me a slightly odd mental image.

quite a while... I blame auto-correct.

Well did the unpleasant incident involve bears? :o

stealth, I totally pictured a bunch of bears capering about.

Well did the unpleasant incident involve bears? :o

If only, stealth, as I recall, it was neither grizzly nor grisly.

Sorry for double post!

No problem stealth, nice to have a bit of an exchange here.

My image is a small boy sitting by the water with a fishing line tied to his toe. Is that correct?

Ok just read first post. Top marks I guess.

I use 'dire rear' as I can't spell the correct version for love nor money.

I have self published an e-book. I would actually be grateful for corrections, though I did my best. I couldn't afford an editor. However when you read an e-book that is self published then you have to understand there has been absolutely no-one checking the copy. You could self publish a shopping list if you wanted. In fact it's only a matter of time, given some of the threads on chat. I hope it will be properly punctuated.

And I have been so self conscious typing this post. Didn't a previous thread mention Mruphy's Law where it is absolutely guaranteed that if you post complaining about grammatical errors you always include at least one in your own post?

my image is a line painted on board a ship with a row of people pointing their toes towards it. is that correct?

I don't know Nigella I'm going to have to look it up, you've got me thinking it's plimsoll line related now.

So I was led to believe it's related to having a line on your toe so you are ready when the fish bites so you were forced to sit still and be quiet.

My Dad told me this and he was very well educated a long time ago, although in another country. I think he was having me on.

The other explanations make far more sense.

There are usually a number of explanations for idiomatic phrases, and it's hard to pinpoint any of them as the definitive one.

I have to say that my visualisation of "toe the line" is not related to any of the explanations, it's just something I dreamed up in my head - I see someone walking along a straight line like if a policeman in the USA suspected they were drink driving, so they're trying to follow the designated line and not deviate from it

One that I notice a lot is phase being used instead of faze, as in ' It didn't phase me' when it should be 'It didn't faze me '.

Another one I see so often, even in dictionary definitions of the word, is the word anathema being used without 'an' in front of it e.g. 'It was anathema to him' rather than 'It was an anathema to him' as anathema is a noun. It is so common that I wonder if I am wrong or it can be used either way.

A teacher once told me of a pupil who had written an essay, in all seriousness, about Hitler's use of proper gander.

Presumably he had a really good look at everything.

Didn't know about faze. Never tend to use the expression but I will now. It seemed awkward to me to use it because I couldn't connect the meaning of phases with faze so I didn't feel comfortable using it. I must have internalised pedantry.

Is pedantry even a word?

A few years ago someone posted on the MSE forums they had been offered a 'Jester of Goodwill'.

For days I was chuckling to myself at a vision of a Timothy Claypole esque Jester knocking on the door, waving his bell stick (a Marotte apparently) shouting "taaa daaa"

Still makes me smile now.

@ jester of goodwill....and Timothy Claypole was my first crush!!

LisaMed and others who have trouble spelling the correct version of dire rear
Diarrhoea
Is
Awful
Really
Runny
Hurry
Or
Else
Accident

is how I remember it

On another thread something is apparently a mute point. I wanted to ask if that meant that we weren't allowed to talk about it, but I didnt!

Not quite the same but when mum worked at the library and in the pre internet days, a school aged lad came in and asked if they had any books about copper knickers. Took her ages to figure out that a) he hadnt been listening in class because b) he meant Copernicus! :o

Timothy Claypole was my first crush

Mine too , well, him and Jason from Battle of the Planets but he doesn't count as he was a cartoon. DH had a crush on Miss Popoff. Every time I see Audrey on Coronation Street I wind him up about it hehe