Grammar Moses: A fantastical look at 'less' and 'fewer'

Despite there being dragons, prodigious bloodshed and eight long seasons, I've largely enjoyed finally watching "Game of Thrones."

There was an awful lot (of awfulness) that happened during this series, but it had its subtleties, too.

I especially enjoyed the running grammar-correcting subtext.

Stannis Baratheon in the second season corrects Ser Davos Seaworth, who was an illiterate smuggler, telling him it was "fewer" fingers, not less.

In the seventh season, in an episode I watched two weeks ago, Jon Snow asks Davos, "How many men do we have in the North to fight him - 10,000? Less?"

Davos' response: "Fewer."

Some 1,932 days elapsed between the setup and the punchline in wait-for-a-year-and-a-half-between-seasons HBO time, but I powered through the series at a clip of an episode and a half a day.

It might be the longest joke setup ever, but what a wonderfully subtle and satisfying punchline it was.

Rest easy

Reader Cynthia Cwynar's regular emails lead me to believe she's concerned for my health, which, in turn, makes me think I should be concerned for my health.

"Rest easy or rest easily?" she asked. "How do YOU rest?"

If I'm being honest, with a Miller High Life and a TV remote.

"Rest easy" is a common phrase of assurance. And I'm sure that's what Cynthia is getting at.

Adverbs - those that modify adjectives - are supposed to have an "-ly" suffix, right?

Welllll, not necessarily.

At some point in the last six years I've written about flat adverbs, which are those that retain the same spelling as their related adjectives.

Think "near," "late," "cheap" and "high."

Stars are bright, but they can also shine bright. Or brightly. Your choice.

Flat adverbs, from the research I've done, are headed toward endangered species territory, being replaced over the decades and centuries by their -ly counterparts.

Consider "safe."

I have some personal views on this one. Would you ask your significant other to "return home safe" or "return home safely?"

I look at "return home safe" as being about one's arrival in one piece and "return home safely" as more about the journey home.

What do you think?

Tenterhooks, not tenderhooks

I know in some cultures people relish eating chicken feet. I have never tried this - with or without relish - in the same way I've never eaten a pig's ear, which I'm told is the height of bar cuisine in Spain.

Can a chicken foot with claws, scales and bones really be tender?

I don't know that anything consisting largely of hooks could be considered tender. Some of you might think, hey, what about squids? They have hooks. And to that I say: Calamari is rubbery, not tender.

I say this from having tried it once during the previous millennium.

"Tenterhooks" is derived from the Latin "tentus," which means "to stretch." The metal hooks used to uniformly stretch wool or fabric on a tenter as it dries are known as tenterhooks.

To be "on tenterhooks" is to be nervous about the outcome of something or - more precisely - to be stressed.

The idiom itself is a bit of a stretch, if you ask me. But so many are.

So, if a friend tells you she's "on tenderhooks," feel free to pull out your laminated copy of this column.

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.