To me, “he went to the hospital” makes sense only if you live in an area with only one hospital. Otherwise, it seems better to say “a hospital” or to name the specific hospital.
It bugs me, but I’m like everyone else, and say “the hospital”.
@doschicos I used to iron my husband’s shirts when first married and never liked it. Actually, I disliked it so much, he would pick out the shirt he wanted to wear the next day, and I would iron only that shirt the night before! Laundry was done weekly at our apartment laundry room, but there was no way I wanted to iron all shirts at the same time. Once we were able to afford sending them out, out they went 
I guess I passed on the non ironing genes; my daughter rarely irons, her husband does his own shirts.
Ironing is sort of therapeutic for me, and I do a very good at it, but it takes me forever. That’s why DH does his own now because he said it’s not essential enough for me to spend that much time ironing. Normally we just outsource to the dry cleaner, once a month.
And around here, where there’s probably 30+ hospitals within an hour’s drive, this is immediately followed by the other person asking “which one?”
Just a goofy peculiarity of our language.
The British-ism that really kills me is treating companies and sports teams as plural, e.g. “Pepsi are introducing a new beverage next week.”
I was worse than you. For my own work blouses, I’d only iron the collar and cuffs in the winter and wear a sweater. Problem was when it got too hot, I couldn’t take my sweater off. :lol:
In the US, aren’t some teams singular and some teams plural?
For example, “The Harvard Crimson is playing offense, while the Yale Bulldogs are playing defense.”
We live close to a big community hospital so we go to “the ER.” 
Although now I am trying to do every thing humanely possible to stay out if said ER… because that is THE epicenter ER.
I think the team nicknames are always plural, because they refer to multiple people, even if the actual nickname isn’t obviously plural.
But we would never say “Yale are playing defense”, because Yale is singular since there’s only one Yale team. When I hear a British commentator say “Liverpool are having a horrid day on the pitch” it makes my brain skip.
It’s just what you’re used to.
My SIL is a Brit, and my daughter, his wife, is a grammar queen. It took her a while, when living in the UK to get over in her mind, the grammar mistakes!
Is it the norm for home buyers to receive a copy of a survey at closing? Does that only happen if the buyers hired a surveyor themselves, or do sellers usually provide an existing one?
I wonder if this varies by state. I don’t recall ever not getting a survey, although we’ve had to hire a surveyor for a new one whenever we applied for permission to build anything in the back yard. It seems that a new neighbor either didn’t get one or doesn’t know how to read it.
In my state it is typical to get a plot plan, which is taken from the town’s books. These are public records though, anyone can go into town hall and get one.
But it is very unusual to have an actual instrumented survey done here, unless some issue comes up like a question about whether someone’s shed is over a property line. I’ve bought something like 10 properties in my life and sold several of them and have never once gotten an instrumented survey.
Thanks. I checked and what we received from the builder/developer on this house is a plot plan; it shows all easements in detail in addition to the property lines. The neighbor bought his house from the first owner, so perhaps he didn’t receive a plot plan or survey. He seemed to think that his property extended to our fence, which is actually set back due to a 20 ft. U&D easement. Glad H stopped him before he removed our trees to lay more sod.
For reasons unknown to me, in Texas surveys are required by either title companies or lenders, but this isn’t the case in other areas where I’ve bought and sold property.
At minimum, a real estate a buyer should review the official map on record with the county recorder to understand the basic lay of the land, easements, etc.
Another point: generally speaking, title insurance doesn’t cover encroachments that would have been disclosed by a survey.
Usually stuff like this is because whoever makes money from it had a strong lobby and got laws passed.
For example, in MA only lawyers can do a closing. You cannot buy or sell residential property without one.
I was supposed to meet my kids in Jamaica April 19 and have flights on American. Kids all live elsewhere and are on different airlines. Of course, I’d prefer to receive a refund due to flights being cancelled rather than cancelling and getting credits to be used over the next year.
I just checked and Jamaica just extended the closure of its borders from April 3 to April 17. I did just check and the flights I’m on are still listed on American’s website.
There’s no way we’re going, even if Jamaica somehow miraculously opens its borders on the 17th or 18th.
Is the best strategy just to wait until the 17th to see what the Jamaican government does (I’m assuming/hoping the closure will continue) in which case American and the other airlines will have to cancel the flights and I’ll be refunded?
And, if the closure isn’t continued, and the flights aren’t cancelled, then I’m assuming we should cancel at least a day in advance (unsure if there’s a point at which it’s too late) and we’d then get a credit.
Just wondering if I’m missing something. It’s not a small amount of money on the line.
@collage1 We got full refunds, not credit, from American Airlines for flights that were not yet cancelled. My H called them and while they were difficult to do deal with, he did get the refunds.
Thanks. I’ll try calling tomorrow. If I’m successful, I’ll suggest the kids do the same. Occurs to me that our state has a shelter in place “until further notice”. Not sure that, without a date after April 19 in effect, that will hold weight but glad to hear, @mjmama, that your H was successful.
For virtual meetings, what are the differences between Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, etc.? We want to get a group online together on Sunday, but I don’t know if one has advantages over the others. Do those who use these often have a favorite?
I don’t have much knowledge of these products but I’ve been hearing and reading about security issues with zoom.
Google Meet is the platform our school district uses to avoid security issues that were reported with Zoom.