David Mack's answers interspersed with my original comment: >> but walking on a sidewalk baffles me.
>As an anglophile you'll have to 'internalize' referring to the >'sidewalk' as the 'pavement'. :-) > >Which side is correct, or even preferred? >Traditionally the gentleman walks on the side closest to the traffic, >and the lady walks on the other side. Darn, more terms to keep straight. I guess you don't have sidewalk sales then. OK, pavement. And, yes, even we colonists are aware of protecting our ladies from splashes that can still come from the street traffic (our roads are generally much worse than yours). When my wife inadvertently walks on the side closest to the traffic, I'll say "carriages", we laugh and change positions. The real question though, which was also addressed by David Craig in a separate post, is on which side of the pavement do both my wife and I walk? It appears that there is no established rule (or even rule of thumb) about whether to pass to the right or left. Or if there is one, it appears to be regional. We've probably talked about this too much already, but it's just incongruous with a society that queues beautifully, handles roundabouts with ease and is the gate keeper of the English language. Just pick a side and we'll be happy to conform! :-) Cheers, John Glaves nb Rhapsody [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
