b'Matters heart of thematterThingsthat Matter Since 1990 LanguageFeaturing Local People, Places and PUBLISHER& EDITOR IN CHIEF Lovers UniteEllen DonkerASSOCIATEEDITORAnne Mandell We care about wordsSOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER BY ELLEN DONKERRachael Entine Iblame my mother forThis is also the case for a word that ADVERTISING CONSULTANTSRene Conlon do not consider myself a gram-H. Leslie Gilman mar expert, but its always beenI realized I had been saying my entire Amy Powerimportant to me to speak cor- life and never noticed: nother, as in, GRAPHIC DESIGN rectly. IThats a whole nother reason not to Ellen Donker that. In her quiet way, she waswatch the news. Nother is, indeed, particular about how her chil- a word but one that you probably will COPY EDITORS dren expressed themselves. Imonly find in speech and not in print, Charles Hammer glad she was because she taught me aexcept for here.Tia Swanson failsafe way to determine whether toAnyone who is interested in these CONTRIBUTORS use I or me in a sentence. I learnedmatters would enjoy a visit to Planet Kristen di Gennaro very quickly not to say, Denise wentWord in Washington, D.C., a muse-Adrianna Ahern Donat to Sterns with Joanne and I. And itum with interactive galleries and ex-Rose Bennett Gilbert was like nails on a chalkboard whenhibits all about words and language. Amy Lynn-Cramer she heard someone say, You shouldveWhen I was there in March, I learned Ilysse Rimalovski went with me. a word describing something I have Harriet Sigerman My daughter, Madeline, and son,struggled with my entire life: colly-Tia Swanson Christian,feelthesameway.Wewobbles. It means intense anxiety or Joy Yagid can have long, spirited conversationsThis grammar quiz at the Rebelnervousness,especiallywithstomach with a Clause movie screening was about grammatical topics. And we aresurprisingly tricky. queasiness. I now feel seen.skilled in giving each other the brief- I recently saw a movie at the Ridge-est sideways glance when someone in our midst uses,wood Public Library called Rebel with a Clause. The say, an improper verb tense. Recently, my stepdaughterauthor, Ellen Jovin, wrote a book about her traveling Please address all correspondence to: said, She had sang the wrong note. And there we gavegrammar table that she set up in cities in all 50 states Visual Impact Advertising, Inc. the glance, partly because we were surprised that Leah, atoanswerpeoplespressinglanguagequestions.Her P.O. Box 198 polyglot who teaches ESL for a living, didnt use sung.husband, Brandt Johnson, filmed the interactions and Maplewood, NJ 07040 But it happens to the best of us.turned it into a movie. 973-763-4900 Years ago, when I worked at AT&T, I had a bossWhether you read the book or see the movie, youll mattersmagazine.comwho used the word irregardless when she was makingfind out that many people have pet peeves when it comes info@mattersmagazine.com a point. She said, Irregardless of our latest reorganiza- to grammar. Youll also learn a lot of language lessons Matters Magazine is owned and publishedtion, we need to keep our eyes on the ball. I desperatelyas people ask the difference between laid and lain, by Visual Impact Advertising, Inc., P.O. Box 198 Maplewood, NJ 07040. Matterswanted to tell her that the ir and less equated to asharetheiroutsizedlove(ordisdain)fortheOxford Magazine is free, with editions direct maileddouble negative, but I didnt want to get caught up incomma, and learn when to use who or whom. During a seven times a year to the residents of Maple- the next downsizing dragnet, so I kept it to myself. Oth- Q&A with the author, one man admitted to feeling an-wood and South Orange and distributed to businesses and surrounding communitieser staff members noticed, and we bonded with a secretnoyed every time he passed the local Womans Club. In totaling 16,000. Subscriptions are availableeye roll, also used when she pronounced an irrelevanthis opinion, it should be the Womens Club, and people to non-residents for $30 (U.S.) $40 (Foreign)issue a mute point.should know better. annually. No part of the publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced withoutNow, you may look up irregardless in the diction- It seems that I am one of many people who care about writtenpermissionfromVisualImpactary and find that it is, in fact, a real word. Merriam-Web- usingtheEnglishlanguageproperly.Sowhenlinguist Advertising, Inc. sters unabridged edition included it in 1934, and otherKristen di Genarro approached me with her idea for a CIRCULATION VERIFIED BY dictionaries followed suit. Apparently, the word has beenlanguage columnLanguage MattersI gave her an em-U.S. POSTAL RECEIPTS. in widespread use since 1795. Merriam-Websters rea- phatic yes. We want to know what language questions you READ & RECYCLE soning is that it doesnt make the English language. Ithave. Email us and well try to address them. Itll give you merely records it.a whole nother reason for reading Matters Magazine. 8/ matters magazine / spring 2025'