But! As Tuomaala pointed out in an e-mail, "There are email lists operating on other software.  Only lists that run on L-Soft's software are LISTSERV lists."

I wrote back for clarification, asking Tuomaala if she wanted us to find out what software each mailing list we report on is using. If I was the first person ever to reply to such an e-mail, Tuomaala masked her enthusiasm very well. "One way is to find out what is the solution is," she wrote. "For example, if it is visible in the email list address or web site. Another way, especially when the product itself is not interesting, is to use a generic term instead."

Some of the generic terms Tuomaala suggests:

email list
mailing list
email group
email discussion list
email community
announcement list
email forum

I think this is a perfectly reasonable request, and it points us toward greater accuracy, journalism-wise. From now on, CP writers, please do not use the word Listserv. "E-mail discussion list" may not have zing, but it is the correct term.

According to my American friend Elizabeth who now lives in the U.K....a noticeable difference between the level of care in the U.S. and British systems is the hospital ward. Here in the U.S. we're used to having "semi-private" rooms wherein two strangers are housed in adjacent beds in the same hospital room with curtains for privacy. In England, multiple patients are housed in an open ward with curtains for privacy. —Kimberly Krautter, Huffington Post

And we have a system where the government basically creates such a top-down bureaucracy so that you end up rationing or have significant delays in health care, such as what happens in Canada or England. —Sen. Judd Gregg

England! That other Eden, that precious stone set in a silver sea. Home to Brighton rock, two of my favorite music blogs (1) (2), and many famous men named Ronnie (1) (2) (3)! ALSO: not a synonym for "United Kingdom" or "Great Britain."

England is a nation. It's part of a confederation called the United Kingdom, which comprises Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and Northern Ireland. Both of the people I cited above are conflating a part of the United Kingdom with the whole. Specific references to England are dandy, of course—Kimberly Krautter's friend might well have experienced a communal hospital room in England, for example, it's just that this follows what purports to be a comparison between the health-care systems of the United States and Great Britain. Britain would have been better here, since the same thing happens everywhere in the country. Careful writers will not confuse England with its neighbors.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Like many Americans, many English people use "England" as shorthand for "Great Britain" or "United Kingdom." Ask someone from Scotland about this tendency sometime.

Both schools of thought have valid points. To wit:

The "Bands Are Its" Argument

The word band is singular. Saying "Collective Soul are playing the 9:30 on Aug. 27" is as ignorant as it is a sad statement of fact. Collective Soul is a band. The band is playing on Aug. 27. It would be incorrect to say "Only a group of people with unfashionable tribal arm-band tattoos are going to the Collective Soul show at the 9:30 on Aug. 27." The antecedent is not the plural noun people, it is group, which is singular. QED.

THE PROBLEM: Some bands have inconveniently plural names. To say "The Fiery Furnaces is playing the Black Cat on Aug. 8" is to create something almost as difficult to listen to as the new Fiery Furnaces album. So this rule requires a big honking exception: "The Fiery Furnaces are playing"; unfortunately, "the band is out of ideas." It can look odd to have both forms of address in one article.

The Bands Are Theys Argument

People write sentences like "Widespread Panic are opening for the Allman Brothers Band on Oct. 6 at Merriweather Post Pavilion" because people say "Widespread Panic are opening for the Allman Brothers Band on Oct. 6 at Merriweather Post Pavilion." It's unnecessarily stilted for a publication that doesn't address people by "Mr." or "Ms." on second reference to sound so stuffy. Moreover, consonance reigns in your music section. All bands are theys.

THE PROBLEM: Why should the music section follow different rules from the rest of the publication? Because musicians lack unfashionable tribal arm-band tattoos? "Apple are releasing a new iPhone?" "The government are declaring war?" Asinine! (INTERESTING SIDENOTE: In the United Kingdom, many ostensibly singular entities are referred to as plurals: "PARTICK Thistle have found a unique way of topping last season's headline-grabbing pink kit – by launching a new away strip in camouflague." Then again, the story misspells camouflage.)

My feeling:

Platform agnosticism is underratedoverrated [DOH! WISH I'D HAD A COPY EDITOR LOOK AT THIS]. Just as there are features that work better online and features that work better in print, the way you talk and the way you write can be different. Anyone who's ever heard me stammer through an interview would probably agree! I say option 1.