Friends: My students and I have been most appreciative of the lively responses to my query about our problem with "BE supposed to" and will write a proper thank you after we have a chance to reflect on them further. I have had to print them out, as in this nonresidential college, our students are by and large not yet on line. But this has been a great incentive for speeding that process! Here's another question: We have become especially interested in usage issues and the varying considerations that enter into judgments about "correctness." We have read Strunk & White, for example (still, apparently, the layperson's Bible? anyway, it keeps popping up in appeals to authority in the NY Times!), and moved on to the usage manuals. I will be assigning Joseph Williams' fine chapter on "correctness" (from 10 Lessons . . .) and Steven Pinker on "The Language Mavens." Can you guide me/us to other recent articles for the non-technical reader that are in more or less the same class? Thanks again! Carolyn Kirkpatrick York College/CUNY