[SC.LUG] Bill Gates to be Knighted?

[Neil Lucock]

On Wed, 2004-01-28 at 09:03, Ian Molton wrote:
> On 27 Jan 2004 20:11:26 +0000
> Neil Lucock <neil.lucock at zen.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> > > M$ meteoric rise 
> > <pedantry> Er, perhaps you haven't noticed, but meteors do not
> > rise.</pedantry>
> 
> Technically, neither does the sun - whats your point? ;-)
The sun appears to rise in the sky, so it's  reasonable to say "it rises" 
as that is based on people's direct observation.
No one ever sees meteors rise. It's a bad choice of words that people
just repeat without thinking about what they are saying. If what they
mean is "something fast", then there are many better choices for a word
to mean fast, perhaps one that doesn't give a contradictory image.
Repeating other people's inaccurate thinking isn't as rewarding for your
readers as it would be if you wrote your own thoughts.That's my point
:-)
regards,
Neil