Grammar Moses: Y, must you cause us problems?

The letter Y gives people fits. Those with a solid grasp of English still manage to screw up the distinctions between the next few pairs of homophones that contain a Y:

• You're opening a new dental office in town. You take a sheaf of advertisements to a parking lot and slide them under people's windshield wipers, where they'll no doubt go undetected until there is a monsoon. Is that piece of paper a "flier" or a "flyer?"

It depends on which good book you consult.

Most of your better dictionaries - Oxford English, Webster's New World and American Heritage - say "flyer" is merely a variant spelling of "flier," which is defined as an aviator, a handbill or a risk one takes (Jimmy took a flier on tech stocks.)

However, in the land of newspapering, where we take our cues from The Associated Press stylebook, we learn a "flyer" is either a handbill or an aviator. A "flier" is a risk.

• If you're "dyeing," you're changing the color of something. If you're "dying," then I would hope you could find something better to read with the time you have left.

If you're dying to start dyeing, then don't be too hasty. Lay down a tarp first.

• A "dryer" makes your clothes or your hair "drier."

A man possessed

Ken Juranek wrote with a question that, lucky for me, brought up another one.

"I read 'Manet and Modern Beauty,' the catalog for the current exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. I tripped over this sentence describing a model: 'Laurent was an actress of little renown but a well-known member of the demimonde and in fact a very dear friend of Manet's late in life.' I don't understand writing 'of Manet's.' Is this correct or rare usage? I would have written 'a very dear friend of Manet late in life.'"

Touche, Ken, for not getting tripped up on "demimonde," as I did. For the rest of us, "demimonde" is a group of people on the fringes of society, often prostitutes.

Back to Ken's question: The catalog is correct. It is a possessive.

Think of it this way: You would say "Joe is a friend of mine" with "mine" being the possessive. You wouldn't say "Joe is a friend of me."

The "a dear friend of Manet's" construction is called a double possessive, which has two requirements: when the word after "of" is an animate object (at the time, Manet was animate); and the word before "of" refers to only a portion of the animate object's possessions. One could assume that Manet had more than one friend.

In the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco," Al Pacino's character, Lefty, explains to Johnny Depp's Donnie: "When I introduce you, I'm gonna say, 'This is a friend of mine.' That means you're a connected guy. Now if I says that 'This is a friend of ours,' that would mean you were a made guy. Capisce?"

I'm not quibbling with Pacino's use of "says" because even though I know he is just an actor, I think it's still important for me to consider the health of my kneecaps.

In both "mine" and "ours," possession is indicated. However, in the former the association is more of a personal nature. In the latter, it suggests ownership by a crime syndicate. Capisce?

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.