Three cheers, five stars and a slap on the back for Sony. I was trapped interminably in the electronics company’s voice mail system. Sony made up for it when I finally got a robot voice that said,
Due to an unusually high volume of calls, all of our associates are busy with other customers. Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.
The robot did not say, as nearly all voice mail robots do, “… in the order it was received.” A victory for clear English—a tiny one—but it helped keep my spirits up during the next interminable wait.
I know: picky, picky, picky. But good usage matters. Tell your children. And give them this book for Christmas.