Even the notoriously smarty pants "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" (and I say that with affection and admiration) makes a mistake that bedevils many of us. In a caption promoting Friday night's story about Sarah Palin's interview, the "Countdown" crew on MSNBC mixed up whose (possessive) and who's (contraction for "who is").

We have only one rule to remember: Possessive pronouns never use an apostrophe.

The Associated Press has a piece analyzing how President George W. Bush's personality affected his legacy and a companion piece on the 43rd president's verbal gaffes.

My favorite has always been:

"They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too."

The neologism Bushism earns an entry in Wikipedia, which also refers to President Harding's speaking style. Jacob Weisberg of Slate has The Complete Bushisms. Even Queen Elizabeth II once teased Bush about a slip of the tongue.

Of course, we'll have Vice President-elect Joe Biden to fill the gaffe gap.

Take a look at some of the top words for 2008.

Professor Stanley Fish has an amusing tale of a grammar complaint on his New York Times blog. Fish is a former chairman of the English Department at Duke University.

The Triangle Grammar Guide has a gift for you: a quiz with a holiday theme. The five sentences cover several grammar and usage issues. The quiz contains more graphics and might take a bit longer to load up for you. 

Click here or on the gift package to begin.

Some people just can't stand hearing what some other people say, and they are calling on the grammar guide to help put a stop to it.

A reader sent this note recently to our editors:

Where I grew up we picked cotton, peaches, beans and noses. But even in GA we CHOSE governors, senators, coaches and vinegary barbecue. You might not have noticed, but headline and article writers at the N&O have developed a greater liking for "pick/picked" over "choose/chose." One of your geeks could check it out, proving me wrong--but methinks not. If we pick less and choose more we'll look and "sound" better. 

I reckon I am the chosen geek on this question. The answer is ... I can't find an authoritative source on this. I've checked usage books and stylebooks but can't find an entry on pick vs. choose. I have heard this preference from at least one other person, a former copy desk colleague, but I have never seen it written down.

Is this akin to "raising crops" but "rearing children" or  to "growing crops" but "increasing revenue"? I don't know. 

A dictionary gives this definition for pick: "to choose or select, especially with care." That's the first definition in the entry. The 11th definition of pick in the Random House Webster's College Dictionary is "to pluck or gather one by one." But Webster's New World College Dictionary gives "select or choose" as the eighth definition for the transitive verb pick. "To remove by pulling with the fingers; to pluck" is the fourth definition.  Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive, so it appears that pick to mean choose is common. (If you want a long list of definitions and uses for pick, check the OED. That will give you either a word nerd thrill or a splitting headache.)

The etymology of pick relates to pike for a sharp tool used to pierce or dig soil. From that, I could take the leap that pick is best used for pluck rather than select, but that would be big leap into thin air.

I know that I prefer choice to pick as a noun because it just sounds better, but I might choose pick for a headline because it's shorter. In the body of a story, I would probably write choose a candidate rather than pick a candidate, but I don't think pick is wrong

If you have a good source on pick vs. choose, please send an e-mail message or leave a comment on this post. I must have overlooked it.

A question about farther and further prompted a short discussion among some of my colleagues.

The Triangle Grammar Guide quiz is on lay and lie.

A brooch is a piece of jewelry. It has a pin and a clasp so that it can be attached to clothing. The word is pronounced "broch," with a long o, and that leads to a common misspelling: broach.

A broach is a rod used for roasting meat or a sharp-pointed tool used for making a hole. The verb broach means to make a hole, as in a cask, or to open a discussion or bring up a subject.

Some dictionaries list broach as an alternate spelling for brooch, by the way, but most usage experts still separate the two spellings.

Both broach and brooch come from Middle English broche for a pin, peg or spit.