English Usage, And Colourblind Humour

I did the Commonly Confused Words Test (hey; shouldn’t that be the Frequently Confused Words Test): here’s my score –

English Genius You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 93% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can’t find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don’t. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you’re not afraid to use it properly! Way to go! For the complete Answer Key, visit http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

Which I’m at least slightly pleased with. Not least because I beat Claire (barely).

However, it does turn out that I was wrong about something, earlier – over the weekend, she and I had debated use of “I” and “me” (subject/object). Now, as you would expect, we both know how to correctly place them, but I claimed that it was also incorrect, when writing in the subjective sense, to fail to put the other objects in front of you (i.e. “…my friends and I” was better than “…I and my friends”). It turns out, according to AskOxford, that either are equally correct, merely that the former is considered more polite. So, a point to you, there, Claire.

On the other hand – if you get your point across, who gives a shit? Just the pedanticists, that’s who.

Matt, a co-worker, just looked over to my desk, where I was eating a jacket potato covered with bolognaise sauce. “Ooh! Is that spinach?” he asked, and it took me some while to work out why he’s said that… before I remembered that he’s profoundly deuteranope-colourblind (red/green). “Umm, no… it’s bolognaise,” I responded. But of course, to him – and to almost 10% of white male humans worldwide – the dark green of spinach and the dark red of a rich bolognaise have always been pretty much identical. Fascinating, isn’t it?

Further reading:

• AskOxford – English usage guides (might want to do the test first, if you’re gonna)
• Wikipedia on colour blindness
• Simple online colourblindness test