Grammar

In this column, I sometimes answer reader e-mails to try to help people with their grammar problems. It?s a good gig. I get to play expert and hero all at once. And through the magic of old-fashioned printing, my answers appear immediately after the questions. No one can tell how long it took me to produce them. So the finished product makes me look like a bottomless font of instant answers who never has any questions or conundrums of my own. If only that were true. In real time, there are a lot of grammar and usage issues that trip me up. The good news is I?

I've just been accused of schadenfreude — taking pleasure at someone else's misfortune. I'll admit I'm not above this rather base impulse. For example, the name Larry Craig still makes me smile. But in this case, I plead not guilty. You can be the judge. I was reading a CNBC finance story on a Yahoo news site recently when I came across this passage: "Asset allocation strategists haven't had an easy time in recent years. They've grappled with deflation, recession, plummeting U.S. stock markets and surging foreign economies.