Madam, - You know what? There, I squeezed in the first of several new affectations that have arrived on our shores this summer from the "soaps" of the US television.
That pointless rhetorical question seems to lead into almost every statement of fact, but it is not the worst offender. I blame Gerry Ryan on RTÉ Radio for unconsciously introducing these up-to-date Americanisms.
Alas, he is not alone because Joe Duffy, Pat Kenny and even Marian Finucane quickly fell after they came back from holidays with another annoying piece of slang - the "reversed question".
So all too often one hears, "You went where for your holidays?", instead of: "Where did you go for your holidays?" Or, "It cost how much?" instead of: "How much did it cost?"
We may well mourn the passing of both grammar and syntax as decried in the song: "Oh what have they done, with our old mother tongue?" Ronan Collins plays it frequently; so, presenters, please listen to it and learn. And, hey, how easy is that? Oops, there's another one. - Yours, etc,
TIM COSTELLO, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.