WRITERS OFCOLOUR. The Calgary Herald`sombudsman, in answer to a reader`s complaint about the newspaper`s American spellingcolor, favoured the dropped u on the grounds that it followed the newsservices` style, that it originated among printers who thereby saved time in handtypesetting, and that the British form in Canada "was never quite soentrenched as some people think." Yet Acts of Parliament and certain otherofficial documents are still required by an 1890 Order in Council to follow the "English practice of -ourendings." That the Americans may sometimes have a superior claim toorthographic correctness, however, is shown by the word ax, which the OEDconsiders etymologically better than the axe that has long superseded it in British usage. REASON IS BECAUSE. Barbara Amiel wrote in Maclean`s that the"first reason I like University of Toronto Schools (UTS) is because ittolerated me." But would that respected seat of learning tolerate hergrammatical redundancy? Those who feel that this particular solecism has become acceptablethrough long and frequent usage should keep in mind that the equivalent"the reason I like UTS is for the reason that it tolerated me" wouldbe better expressed by "the reason I like UTS is that..." or "Ilike UTS because.. SORRY, WRONG NUMBER. The Financial Post editor Diane Francis pointedout in a Maclean`s column that "the lion`s share of Canadian oil and naturalgas deposits are in Alberta and the subsurface mineral rights, or actualresource ownership, and 80 per cent of the province`s mineral rightsbelongs to the Crown." To make each of the verbs in this sentence agreewith its corresponding subject, the lion`s share must take "is" andthe subsurface mineral rights "belong." STRAIGHT, STRAIT. A Canadian Press report that the mayor ofYellowknife had accused a local mine management of being "extremelystraight-laced" exemplifies the confused application of two homonyms.Straight, an adjective derived from stretch, is used mainly to describesomething that is not curved or angular. Strait, from the French etroit, meansnarrow or confined in a physical or geographical sense, as in the place-nameDetroit, or in figurative usage such as straitened circumstances The acceptanceby some dictionaries of straight as synonymous with strait in strait-jacket andstrait-laced is a recognition of popular usage that disregards etymology.Similarly, the incorrect substitution by some writers of strait in straight andnarrow is probably influenced by the New Testament`s admonition: "straitis the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life." TRANSPIRE, in its scientificapplication, means to exude watery vapour from an animal or a vegetablesurface. Originally, its figurative sense was leaking out or escaping fromsecrecy into notice, but transpire has also become a colloquial synonym forhappen or occur. Yet the colloquial transpire is often pretentious and it maybe ambiguous. Fortunately, when the Financial Post reported that the Ontariopremier Bob Rae "kept mum on ... what, if anything, transpired inGermany," it could be assumed that the cat remained safely in the bag. AUNTIE`S STYLE. Among the b&es noires of the small but informative BBC-News &Current Affairs Stylebook and Editorial Guide are "Americanisms" thatthe disapproving corporation shuns "until they have become commonplace in goodspoken English" in the United Kingdom. Although babysitter and gimmick nowmeet that test, diaper and sidewalk do not. Despite its attempt atmodernity, the stylebook refuses to abandon every archaic form. Anyone, we aretold, to whom the Queen grants an interview is given an audience of, not with, Her Majesty. Perhaps the distinction is lost on most of us, buteven the OED clearly accepts either of or with in that same context. ON THE HOUSE. Senator Pat Carney was reported to havedenounced as "idiotic" the living-allowance increase that hercolleagues temporarily awarded themselves. Yet idiot derives from a Greek wordthat originally meant a person who held no public office. It was later extendedto include the unlearned, and eventually the ignorant and the mentallyretarded. No, madam, it is we the laity who are idiotic, for putting up with anunelected, non-accountable Red Chamber.