Grammar Moses: You've come a long ways, baby

I read with interest a Scot Gregor column that served as a preview for the recent Cubs-Sox interleague series: "White Sox have come a long ways since last visit to Wrigley."

What interested me was not the progress the Sox have made - I'm sure there must have been some - but that we'd used "a long ways" instead of "a long way."

I was prepared to fire off a nastygram to the person who wrote the headline, but upon doing some research I calmed down and chided myself for being too staid.

I fired up Google's Ngram Viewer, which looks at word usage in books published from 1800 to 2000. I compared the frequency of the phrase "a long way to go" to "a long ways to go" to avoid "a long way to Tipperary" interfering with my research.

Remember, this Google study looked only at books - not magazines, newspapers, blog posts, tweets and skywriting.

The "way" phrase outpaced the "ways" version by a ratio of 88 to 1.

Clearly, in more formal literature (books) the "way" version is way more prevalent. However, the "ways" version is an established idiom in American English. It's considered informal, which is probably why we used it in the sports section.

Is today this weekend?

Perhaps the greatest source of confusion among people who like to plan things is determining what "next weekend" means.

Jan Gollberg wrote to ask me for a ruling on just when "this weekend" and "next weekend" are.

I think of how much heartache could have been avoided in my life had some divine hand made this one thing clearer.

If you're reading this on newsprint, it's likely Sunday. It's "this weekend." But Sunday also is the first day of the week.

So if on Sunday your significant other were to tell you, "I'd like to go to the Poconos next weekend," would you think he or she was referring to six days in the future (for those of you who view Sunday as the start) or 13 (for those of you who view Sunday as the end)? If on Sunday he or she told you, "I'd like to go to the Poconos this weekend" would you rush to the airport to see about standby seats or would you fire up Trivago and see what was available in six days?

Or would you say, "The Poconos? What decade are you living in?"

In my household, I like to deal in dates so there is no confusion.

I'd love to hear how your family has worked this out. I'll share good ideas in a column.

Only

Nothing much intimidates Suburban Tax Watchdog Jake Griffin - obscure databases, complicated government forms, angry spendthrift politicians and his bosses.

But a sign painted on a highway had him at a loss.

The Cambridge Dictionary says the adjective "only" is "used to show that there is a single one or very few of something, or that there are no others."

In most cases, "only" suggests just one thing:

• The broken-down Taurus was the only available car on the rental lot.

• A Timex watch was the only gift he received for his 10th birthday.

• Is that the only shirt you have to wear tonight, Honey?

But (sorry, Jake) sometimes "only" means more than one thing:

• Bobby Hull scored the only two goals in the Blackhawks' win.

If the road sign were spelled out entirely, it would have read "You may turn left or right, but you may NOT go straight."

But by the time you could read that, you'd have already hit the bridge abutment.

Drive - and 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 face-book.com/baumannjim.