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...ic chairs and tables for rent-free delivery.” “How generous,” he thought at first. But then he noted how the meaning changed when he substituted a dash for the hyphen. ! Harry Rolnick e-mails: “This sign was recently placed on a lamppost a block from my house in downtown New York. I was told it was a plea for business, but its misplaced dash sounds more like a news story for a supermarket tabloid: ‘Part-time baby sits in East Village’.” ! The BBC online news on Friday 12 November featured an item about the plans of the Virgin Group to expand its airline holdings. But Tony Glaser was intrigued by one sentence: “It is also setting up a no-thrills airline in the US.” He commented that a really boring airline that promised no thrills was OK by him. ! Louden Masterton spotted an “upgrade your security” notice in a Biggleswade locksmith’s window. It exhorted people to “beat the rouge traders!”. Just a cosmetic exercise? ! Mara Math found her calendar for the San Francisco group Save The Bay advertised an unusual event recently: “Canoe and Wine Tasting.” “Mmm,” she wrote in appreciation, “Cedar, fiberglass and a hint of mud, with an impudent brackish undernote.” Prosaically, it was a canoe trip that was promised. ! A news item dated 5 November on the Web site of the Eastern Daily Press startled Ken Blowers: “Norfolk’s adopted warship will go out in style this month by taking part in a series of events across the county before she is decommissioned.” “How are they going to do that?” he asks. “Are they going to put the ship up on rollers and push it?” ! Michael Neustadt e-mails from Connecticut: “Just a few days after the prescription medicine Vioxx was taken off the...