A dreadful warning: a rant.

 And so Covid-19 goes on its way...

The subject of today's rant is a minor matter compared with the blasted bug's ravages, but if we humans can't control a semi-alive entity a two-millionth the size of a man - and perhaps especially because we can't control a semi-alive entity only a two-millionth the size of a man - we need to keep a tight rein on the things we can control, such as the meaning of what we're saying.

This is a headline from The Telegraph newspaper on 3rd September 2021:

Allowing mass infection of schoolchildren would be 'reckless' Gavin Williamson warned

So who did the warning? Did Gavin Williamson warn everyone else? Or did someone warn Gavin Williamson?

Gavin Williamson was Britain's Minister for Education (he's just been sacked) and, given that the press's instinct is always to attack politicians, I think we can guess the answer to that question.

But really there should be no room for doubt.

Word To Use Today: warn. This word was wearnian in Old English Given that we've had about a thousand years to practise* using the thing, you'd have thought we'd have got the hang of it by now.

*No, that's how we spell the word practise in Britain when it's a verb. Well, all right, most people don't - but, according to the dictionary and all pedants, they should!