Grammar Moses: Hey, readers! What words are on your minds?

This will come as a shock to many of you, but I regard this column as a diary of sorts. You know, the kind of diary you leave on the coffee table with a "read me" sign on it.

I sometimes get carried away with my thoughts. This week, let's hear more about what's on your minds.

In response to my request for words that fascinate you, Thomas Schantz's new fave is "cryoseism."

This one was all the rage during the polar vortex. It describes a frost quake - a seismic event that occurs when water saturates the ground and, upon freezing (hence the "cryo-" prefix), causes an expansion of the earth and an accompanying cracking sound or boom.

I figured all the cracking I heard was my house groaning or perhaps my knees.

Drawn to him

Bill Saylor writes that he saw a line in a newspaper (not this one) that described Jasper Sanfilippo as a "hugely successful American businessman, a nut magnet."

"Unless Mr. Sanfilippo attracted strange people, I think 'magnate' was the proper word for Mr. S., who made his fortune shelling pecans and other nuts," he wrote.

Right you are, Bill.

Poultry baron Frank Perdue may have been a chick magnate, but my buddy Dean Hellickson from Prospect High School was a chick magnet (and probably still is.)

There are better ways

Bob Anderson was VP of marketing for what used to be called Universal Oil Products and was responsible for corporate communications.

He told me of a woman named Sandy in his department who had years of experience as a book editor. She helped to prepare scientific reports for publication.

"We frequently received a 2,500-word document for publication where the publisher's limit was half that," he wrote. "The best compliment authors could pay her after reading her lightened up version was 'You didn't change anything.'"

One of her rules was "Thou shalt not start sentences or phrases with 'there are.'"

An example: "There are many ways a doctor can help you lose weight."

Sandy's version: "Doctors have many ways to help you lose weight."

"Her way often saved a word or two but more importantly it provided a tangible subject for the sentence," Bob wrote.

Sage advice, Bob. I concur with Sandy that the greatest compliment that can be paid to an editor is that he or she didn't change anything. What writer would ever admit an editor could possibly make something better?

Parlez-vous francais?

Bruce Spitzer pointed out a giggler in a news brief: " ... participating restaurants offering prefixed menus or special discounts."

I'm not sure how "prefixed" crept into this brief, whether it was sent to us that way, whether the spell-checker mangled it or whether someone on our end had never eaten a fancy meal.

A prix fixe meal is not made ahead of time, like a box lunch. It is a complete meal with a fixed price. Mais oui!

Explaining idioms

Jim Stofa wants to know why people say "test it out" and "print it off" rather than "test it" and "print it."

Explaining idioms is a fool's errand. Ask my dad: I'm always up for a fool's errand.

"Test it out" and "print it off" are phrasal verbs. The "out" and "off" are parts of the idioms that are unnecessary but commonly used.

For extra credit, consider the simple act of extinguishing a light bulb by activating the wall switch.

Depending on where you live, you could be turning the light off, turning the light out, putting out the light, shutting off the light or - dear God - simply shutting the light.

That's my signal to call it a night.

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.