[Martin Parker]

How about the increasingly frequent horror," outside of . . . " much loved by BBC on-the-spot reporters?
"I'm standing outside of Number10." (And everywhere else, it now seems.)

The BBC is now the prime offender against the most basic principles of good English. While I have no objection to the overbearing old Reith turning in his grave, I think he should be saved from the increasingly likely prospect of turning inside OF it.

[Lightning Bug]

Martin,

Your post reminded me of this viral email. In most of the cases, I think the word in question is overly superfluous. But in some cases it does seem to add some spice.

http://www.tysknews.com/LiteStuff/up.htm

[Roger Slater]

Without the "of," though, I don't think Groucho Marx's comment would have been as funny: "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

[Lightning Bug]

And in David Steinberg's old comedy routine, he not only cites a redundancy, but commits one as well:

"God says, 'Take off the shoes from off of your feet ...," God says in His redundant way."

[Ann Drysdale]

Fair makes you want to throw UP, eh?

(Just remember not to inhale...)
.

[Adrian Fry]

Not a redundancy but a pet peeve: those who pronounce the word nuclear as NUCULAR (new-queue-ler). Executable crime, surely.

[Ann Drysdale]

Yes, especially when, like GWB, they have the say-so to press the big red button.

[Erik Olson]

In the U.S. the expression is "hold the fort down." To me all you need to do is hold the fort, as in hold the line, so down is superfluous. Anyway, why must it be held down, is it in danger of floating up? I thought a battle line lost ground by having to retreat backward or gained ground by advancing forward; so what's the down for? If there was a real fort and someone asked me to hold the fort down, I would tell him not to worry, since gravity would do that for us just fine. I would say it's in no danger of floating away, but we might have to hold it by making sure it doesn't have to retreat to the back of us. Besides, if you're holding something to begin with, surely it won't squiggle out of your grip to float up? Is the fort a bird? That might make a bit more sense. Hold the bird down that it might not fly up.

[John Whitworth]

Don't all Americans say nucular?

[Orwn Acra]

I kind of like "pre-prepared salad." I like how even the letters repeat. At my local grocery store, all the items in the deli section are misspelled. All of them! This makes me happy. In fact, I published a poem inspired by a misspelling of blueberries that looked as though the word had fermented.