hmmm.. well, *I* have heard 'cursive' used often, since I did go to college and hung out with pretty well educated folks. I also heard 'handwriting' used to mean almost the same thing by almost everyone.

Oh, and "scoring an own goal" is quite well understood by now by anyone who watches soccer at all.

One thing, Kevin... I see an amazing number of TV programs here featuring English/UK (and Irish) actors and speech patterns & pronunciation. Comedy, drama...and science-wildlife documentaries are common...some with accents so pronounced that they distract me from the topic. I'm not sure who influences whom the most, but I do noticed how 'generally' reluctant most people are to change the way they say or do things from the way they learned in childhood.


"Swap out" almost always means 'take out one and put in another'. This 'usually' means an identical part, but can mean an upgrade.


I have watched documentaries where comments from both Brits and Yanks were edited in, with each pronouncing 'al-you-MIN-e-um' or 'PITza" (pizza) in their own way....sometimes at the same table. There's no 'right' way to spell or say something, but I do wish that more effort was made to tailor programs to the audience who will hear it.(that is, have the background announcer overdubbed, even when participants are using a language or accent that is hard to follow).