I would just like to say that the song "One Less Bell to Answer"is an incredible ear worm. Thanks a lot, guys.
And should the saying “less is more” really be “fewer are more?”
Did we have the same 7th grade English teacher? (Seriously, did we? In southern Illinois?) I still edit my writing by telling myself “don’t use since when you mean because.”
As for less and fewer, that is the grammatical error that makes me craziest. I correct it aloud when it’s on TV.
Grammar is BOTH prescriptive and descriptive. (Or maybe grammar is prescriptive and linguistic is descriptive.) Language grows and evolves all the time, but teachers and print journalists still have style standards. So that was my question–has less/fewer fuzziness become acceptable in style standards? Sounds like not. But I KNOW my kids were taught shine, shined, shined, not shine, shined, shone.
Not flipping tables here, not denying Shakespeare. It was amazing to come back here this morning and see 5 impassioned pages, thanks!
@usernamelm, whether something shined or shone depends on whether light was reflected or emitted: http://grammarist.com/usage/shined-shone/
Something that is shiny shined. The shoes shined when the sun shone.
Nails on the chalkboard for me: “he and I” when it should be “him and me”. What bothers me most is the people who look at ME like I’M the one who’s wrong!
^I’m really obnoxious about that one with my kids. If they say something like, “Me and Kate are going out” I’ll pretend I didn’t understand them until they correct themselves. 
When they make him and me /he and I mistakes I always encourage them to tease the sentence apart. You wouldn’t say “She gave it to I” would you? So why would you say “She gave it to he and I”?
I struggle with non gender specific pronouns. “One” is a possibility, but it gets cumbersome after a couple of uses and comes off as priggish. Alternating he and she is confusing. Using only he is sexist. They isn’t proper either but is sometimes the best of a lot of imperfect solutions.
“They” has a long history as a gender-neutral pronoun. I’m definitely in favor of using that.