Eggcorn: vagary = something vague

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 24, 2006, at 11:10 AM, Karl Hagen wrote:

> I posted about this some time ago in the eggcorn database forum,
> but got
> no response, so I thought I'd try here.
>
> In that earlier post
> (http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=517) I dug up
> examples of this confusion accompanied by a spelling change
> (vagueries,
> etc.), which was how I originally encountered it...

if you look at the database forum, you'll see that there are an
*enormous* number of contributions there.  meanwhile, those of us who
take care of the database (chris waigl primarily, but also ben zimmer
and me) get contributions, every day, from many other sources,
including here on ADS-L.  occasionally, one of these is totally
obvious and easy, and we add the item almost immediately, but most of
the entries require research, reflection, consultation, and
crafting.  i myself have hundreds of items in my files to think about.

it could easily take months (possibly, years) for us to figure out
what to do about particular items.

please remember that those of us who care for the database are people
with other lives.  in fact, we do this work in time stolen from the
things that pay our salaries and from our personal lives.

in my case, i am now getting about a hundred e-mail messages per day
that call for some sort of real response (from stanford, the lsa, ads-
l, Language Log, soc.motss, and much more).  if you work out the
math, say, figuring five minutes per response, you'll see that this
is just impossible.  and indeed i'm now 1,700 messages behind in
answering my e-mail.  i'm doing the best that i can, while still
trying to have an academic career.  (i also have almost 70 postings
to Language Log in preparation.  lord knows when i'll get to them.)

please be patient.

arnold

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