The song is indeed called “Walking.” The name of the band is Pocket Size and they’re British.

Dear eBay Is Your Friend,

Thanks for the response! Most readers who answered thought it was this song, but I got some other suggestions, too; they appear below, and if I got it more than once, blah blah asterisk blah.

Cub — “Magic 8 Ball”
Dust Bunnies — “Hop On By”
Gabrielle — “Walk On By” (cover of Warwick version)
Gomez — “Step Inside” *
Jeanette — “Heat of the Summer”
Oh Susanna — “Walking”
Sixpence None The Richer — “There She Goes”
Something Corporate — “Walking By” *

onlylyrics.com
http://www.alaskajim.com/charts/yearlysingles/1999.asp

My question is fairly simple but I need someone else to tell me how they feel about it. Basically, I need to stop correcting my boyfriend’s grammar. It’s taken me nearly a year to get over the “me and John” thing. But I still have a tendency to correct him out loud, although mostly under my breath or in my follow-up sentence. It’s always a minor correction like “fewer” vs. “less” or “good” vs. “well” and I admit to him that I knew exactly what he meant when he confronts me. It’s not that I think less of him when I say it, but I’m afraid that’s how he feels. I think he’s very smart, but I also think it would help him to speak correctly.

Dear “Thank Goodness” For Whom,

Understand two things right up top here: 1) I have problems with this too — I just popped off an “or fewer” last night, in fact; and 2) it’s a little obnoxious. I was correct on the merits, technically, but I knew even as it was leaving my lips that it was a bit rude.

I know it’s difficult to resist, but — one woman who is also sometimes unable to stop herself to another — you have to try. You have to think to yourself, “It’s actually ‘bring,’ not ‘take,'” not say it out loud, because you aren’t his English teacher mother. My English major mother did it to me too, constantly — “Who’s going to the mall, again?” “Me and Age– uch, fine, ‘Agent Weiss and I'” — but she’s my mom. She had a stake in whether I grew up knowing how to speak correctly. Your boyfriend is already grown, and if he’s not writing “me and such-and-so did XYZ” in formal correspondence, or if he is but he didn’t ask your opinion, you need to…not.

I feel you on the fact that it’s almost instinctual — that you hear an error and it pains you aurally and you just knee-jerk want it corrected. But when I do it, it’s not really rooted in an altruistic concern for how they’re perceived rhetorically. It’s about being right, and being right has its place, but it’s not always enough. If a correction slips out every now and then, well, we’re none of us perfect, but try to be more mindful of it. You can in fact turn it off, probably, if you make an effort.

Dear Sars,

Dear I Like It For Everything But,

The short answer: no, you’re not missing anything, it’s just the usual BBWAA drama-queening; and yes, blanks are counted as “no” votes.

I could go on a lengthy rant about the absurdities in play this year, but instead, I will refer you to two pieces: first, my piece on Barry Bonds, in which I discuss why any other player approaching the Babe in any way makes baseball fans really itchy; and second, Fire Joe Morgan’s outstanding rant, posted yesterday, on the pointlessness of the blank ballots. Item 13 in particular is interesting, if you think about it — not to mention dak’s contention that it’s time to stop caring about the Hall.

I think those two pieces should just about cover the subject; if you’re still confused, email me back and I’ll try to come up with a response that isn’t fourteen paragraphs. Until then, consider this: Pete Rose, who is not now and has never been on the ballot at all, received four write-in votes.

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