Following my letter of March 22, in which I tried to mark the obvious difference between carriageways and traffic lanes, I still notice some confusion in the use of the terms in the press and the media. This may be just as well.
Robert Lynd wrote a famous essay, In Praise of Mistakes, contending that it should be compulsory that every paper would print at least one mistake, to enable readers to feel superior and give them an opportunity to write and convey the appropriate correction.
Mistakes are best when they are open to a sense of humour, intended or, more probably, unintended.
In my youth, I remember a rather pompous ending to an essay by someone who eventually became a famous lawyer and politician – wild horses will not make me reveal his name – in which he urged his readers to perform great deeds to ensure they would be remembered by their posteriors.
“Sit on them” as our dear old Professor Fogarty used to urge us.