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I remembered wincing when, knowing Laurie to be a Brit, he uttered 'my bad' in one episode of House. Most of the time he just speaks 'good' English with a manufactured drawl, and does it very well. 'My bad' irks me because it leaves so much to the second party to fill in. My bad what? As with formulations such as 'I was, like, whatever', what seems lazy and colloquial is actually quite demanding (it seems to me) because you need to know what would have been said if the speaker had needed to lay out the whole story in full. The second party has to insert the substitution in real time. The thing with 'off of' seems to be the intrusion of the oral into the forms of the literate. We have become so accustomed to the latter structuring the former that we sometimes forget which is the cart and which the horse. P > -----Original Message----- > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MC Ward > Sent: 30 March 2007 02:15 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: off of > > Does anyone else watch the tv series "House"? I was > astonished to read recently that the show's star, Hugh > Laurie, is a British actor who lives in London with his wife > and 3 children. Every other weekend he flies to London to see > them. I would never have guessed he was British since he > "speaks American," as he puts it, so well. It's the hardest > part of the job for him, compared to, say, learning his lines > for each weekly episode. Only after he's gotten his lines > down can he concentrate on "translating" them into "American." > > If you don't know "House," try to catch an episode. > It's a wonderful show, especially thanks to Laurie, who's > obviously British-trained in acting and turns in a > spectacular physical performance week after week (Sat. night > at 11:00). > > Candice > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > ______________________ > We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love > to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list. > http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265 >