Ain't works, or it can

Ain't it? My English teachers didn't like the word ain't, but I didn't mind the usage in the headline "Ain't no stoppin' former Dolphins RB Mercury Morris now". Morris, perhaps the most outspoken player from the undefeated '72 Miami Dolphins, often uses ain't to make a point. Ain't may not be proper English, but the point is to communicate. Morris does that well.

Ain't nothing wrong with that.

More Britishisms: I'm still Americanizing British non-fiction books, and I just came across the word unconducive. Apparently it should be inconducive (not for the general good), although I wasn't familiar with the word (yes, I'd heard of conducive). The interesting thing is that spell check gave me two options: inconducive and Anacondas. They're not snaking around the bush.

Apostrophe catastrophe: Yes, I'm a Dolphins fan. I just found this — (S)inger Gloria Estefan and her husband Emilio have bought a minority stake in the Miami Dolphins. This makes the Estefan’s the first Cuban American partners to own an NFL team. — on the Internet. It's true, of course, but there's a problem: You don't need an apostrophe in Estefans. It's plural, not possessive.

And it probably should be Cuban-American.

Changes in attitude...: I'm not finished on the above (Estefan) blog. It mentions that Jimmy Buffet has also become a minority owner of the Dolphins. Jimmy probably knows when to pull back from the buffet, but his name is Buffett.

Hyphe-nation: It always bothers me when I see words that need hyphenation (well-known actor) or words that don't need hyphenation. I just came across double-header, as in a baseball doubleheader. No hyphenation needed.

Spell check: I just found disfunctional in a book I'm editing; it should be dysfunctional.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

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