Word: ain
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...Ain't Bad Grammar...
...popularity of this show a kind of snobbishness in reverse? This excessive concern with grammar and its usage is on the level of whether one should wear this or that color, or use this or that fork, i.e., social insecurity. I have always said "I ain't." The only incorrection is to use the form in other persons: that is, you ain't. Dull people will always speak in a dull manner, whether it is correct...
...After being introduced (or "eulogized," as he put it), he asked permission to doff his jacket, did so, undid his tie, rolled up his sleeves and unbuttoned his shirt. With navel displayed, he gave his ideas on "The Director in the Theatre," after assuring his large audience that "there ain't no one right way of doin' anything...
Barbara Lea (Johnny Windhurst Quintet; Prestige LP). Wellesley's gift to pop music launches her across-the-cocktail-table voice into a collection of beautifully phrased ballads that deserve a wider hearing-My Honey's Lovin' Arms, Gee, Baby Ain't I Good to You, Baltimore Oriole...
...human") or Guest Panelist S. J. Perelman's near classic, "I've got Bright's disease-and he's got mine.'' What riles the audience more is Scholar Evans' zest for breaking old grammatical commandments. Evans accepts "it is me," prefers "ain't" to the awkward "am I not," thinks it fine to occasionally split infinitives, regards prepositions as good things to end sentences with. Says the professor: "When I say, 'Well, that's all we've got time for,' it always triggers a bushel of mail from...