NOW here's a fine kettle of fish. I find myself in complete agreement with Helen Mead (August 27).

Our Monday scribe abandons her bulging underclothes to have a good rant about the misuse of language; and quite rightly too.

Helen mounts my favourite hobbyhorse when she bashes the brainless barbarism that allows the loose-thinking oaf to say: "Hi, hope your day was well cool". A fine example of flaccid tripe was delivered by a union bonehead when he said: "At this moment in time, the executive is not in a position to see its way clear to agreeing with the management on any matter arising within the confines of the disagreement".

So there!

What appears to be a sloppy or meaningless use of words may be a completely correct use of words to express sloppy or meaningless ideas.

Helen mentions her difficulty with the word "interface".

I had the same problem until reading the definitions in the revised third edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, and Gower's Complete Plain Words.

Now, I haven't a clue.

Robert Holmes,

Thorganby,

York.

Updated: 10:51 Thursday, August 30, 2001