If one has ever taken the ferry from Prince Rupert along the land passage into Alaska, one knows how boring such a ride can be if the weather closes in and the spectacular scenery disappears into the fog. In desperation I turned to Fowlers "English Usage" and proceeded to read passages to trapped passengers in the dining hall. I almost went swimming and those waters are very, very cold.
In the introduction to the volume, the editors reported that Winston Churchill, in the midst of the Battle of Britain, took time to make a notation in the margin of a document correcting the author's grammar and advising him that he would not have made such an error, "if you had read your Fowlers today."
I actually learned most of my English grammar by studying German long after English and Spanish courses in high school and Spanish and English courses in college. However, my favorite treatise on grammar was written by Mark Twain during his first European excursion titled, "That Awful German Language" which I found much more amusing than, "Eats, Shoots And Leaves."
