11/3/09– I have been annoyed lately to hear TV reporters–even the ones who rarely make gramatical errors, say "He had a ways to go."   A is singular; ways is plural.  Shouldn't it be "He had a way to go?" But I know I can be wrong. 

I don't know why it takes me so long to get around to "going to the source" (i.e. Mr. Webster) but when I think about it something pops up on my computer screen that needs immediate attention or the phone rings, and I forget.  When I remember,  I'm in another room where the dictonary isn't.  Today I combined time and Webster and am happy to report that when we speak of distance, it is correct to say "a  way to go." "Ways" is correctly used only when we want to indicate a plural: "the many ways to fly a kite"–or somesuch.  In all, I find a total of 21 different uses of the word, "way."

If I ever get around to "Twittering" or "Facebooking," I will bring those newscasters up to date.

Until tomorrow– Willma