A week later she telephoned me and rather sheepishly admitted that, much to her surprise and contrary to what she had been taught, "fishes" was the correct plural of "fish" when referring to different kinds or species of fish. Her seeing the light pleased me. But then I made a mistake.

A misguided debate is ranging over English grammar. It began when authors Patricia O'Conner and Steward Kellerman claimed in the Smithsonian that "most of what you know about grammar is wrong."

Ever since the internet has come about, it seems, and especially since the widespread use of Facebook, grammar has suddenly exploded on the scene as a cool new passion.

The abundant use of profanity is one of the significant signs of what I call the "dumbing down of America." The excessive, needless, and inappropriate use of profane, coarse, crude, tasteless, and obscene language is becoming the norm.

After spending nearly half an hour using my computer to learn more about whack, I contacted several professional acquaintances, asking them where I should go to the find the definition of "whack." Every one of them said: "Look it up on the Internet."