As regular readers of this column know, I love to unleash my readers' pet peeves. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of words!

Judy Case of Cheshire, Conn., detests the insertion of unnecessary apostrophes into simple plurals. She writes, "In a restaurant's drink menu, I see 'Martini's.' I ask myself, 'Martini's what?' Is it a guy named Martini and these are his drinks?" Call Judy shaken AND stirred.

"I hate it when people pronounce the 't' in 'often' and when they say 'irregardless,'" writes Shelley Chandler of Tulsa, Okla.

Doug Walker of Baton Rouge, La., makes a good point about a bad "point." He decries the redundant expression "at this point in time." "It drives me crazy," he writes. "I would like to hear "at this time" or "at this point."

Speaking of redundancy, Kellie Neighbors of Flat Rock, Ill., hates it when newscasters get tied up in "nots," as in "We will see whether or not the day is gloomy, or not." She writes, "The first 'not' is not necessary; the second 'not' is just ridiculous."

Frank Kelly of Ewing, N.J., wants to put concrete shoes on the misuse of the word "cement" to mean "concrete," as in "the car hit the cement pillar." Cement, he explains, is the powder that's mixed with water and sand or gravel to make concrete.

Gerald Hebert of Murraysville, Pa., says he's gonna scream the next time he hears "gonna" instead of "going to." What frosts Beulah Dillon of Black River, N.Y., is the use of "less" with countable items, as in, "There are less choices available." "I was taught that 'fewer' is the word to use when referring to something that can be counted," she writes.

Meanwhile, back at the rant, Karen Hutchinson-Talaski of Hermiston, Ore., detests the use of "goes" for "says." Sentences such as "So Ted goes, 'No way!'" are a no go for her.

If Jill from Fort Lauderdale, Fl., asks, "How are you?" don't reply, "Fine thanks, and yourself?" "The ubiquitous and incorrectly used 'yourself,'" Jill writes, "makes me want to scream."

Speaking of screaming, that's what Jodi Harley of Hopewell, N.J., does when people pronounce "espresso" as "expresso." "The other evening I ordered an espresso martini," she writes. "My server called it an 'expresso martini' several times. Ahhg!"

Hmmm. We're back to martinis again. After reading this column, we all could use one — or two.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Rob Kyff and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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