Also, I'm so sorry about this, but I'm about to ramp up into schoolmaster mode. I do this every now and then, and I *know* it's obnoxious. I'm fully aware that *most* of you are smarter and better educated than I am and just as capable and accomplished in your own fields as I am in mine. But the thing is, see, I'm an editor, and in my field we work with words, and, well, certain things that may be invisible to you are like fingernails on a blackboard to me.
So here goes, I'm lettin' this rip. Please ignore me at will. LESS is an amount or volume word. FEWER is a number word. You can have less water in a bucket, less brains in your head, and you could care less. But you have FEWER elements in a lens, ten items or FEWER in the Express Lane at the supermarket, FEWER than 50 ways to leave your lover. Similarly, OVER is a position word. A bridge can be over a brook, a joke can go right over your head, but it hasn't been OVER a hundred years since the Tessar was invented; it's been MORE THAN a hundred years since then. Nodoby ever get these things right (even network news anchors used "over" incorrectly), but it drives me crazy anyway. You may return to your regular programming...sorry again. (Most of the time, I'm really getting pretty good at holding my tongue.) --Mike
