Although I pay more attention to grammar than a good number of people – it is sort of my mind’s math – I must admit I have not really given any attention to the correct usage of “owing to” and “due to.” I came across a snide remark in a book about people who don’t recognize the difference and, with my eyes shifting from left to right and back and forth again, I wondered, “Gosh, has anyone really noticed that about me?”

Although after 66 years, I don’t suppose it makes much difference, but then if I want to be referred to in my obituary as a life-long learner, it behooved me to investigate. Do you know that people can get very picky and petty and outright nasty in forums concerning grammar? Well, I am not going to link to any of them, except to “Dave’s snit was due to GrammarGirl’s response.”

It is one of those little topics that seems quite clear when you are reading the explanations and then looking at examples, but once you get out into real life, you start second-guessing what you supposedly understood. Kind of like, “Uh, is the red wire positive or negative?” I personally think the latter is confusing because red is associated with “NO” and the wife of every Air Force crew member trainee learns that one does not answer “No,” but instead utters, “Negative.”

I probably could just keep typing into the next day, wandering from story to story, but owing to my craving for a snack, I will just stop. Right here. See, I’m stopped.