Matilda Reich wrote: "I think it's that media thing of having a sense of immediacy." and Michael Lewis: "I suspect that it's related to the "sense of immediacy" that Matilda Reich mentions. It's not a journalistic sense, but a sense derived from the very close involvement of emergency people with the events of the moment. They live in the present, because they are trying to control events;" Matilda and Michael, I agree. Jonathan Peck wrote: "Peter/Matt, The past tense you're referring to is a cultural thing- surely you've noticed it in the pub or on fishing trips of at the cricket - blokes slip into this wierd past tense basically whenever they're telling a yarn. People have been doing it since I was at school (which is a fair while), it's now mainstream." I hear you Jonathan, but my point is that when he/she speaks publicly in this manner, the police officer, fireman, or whoever is not "in the pub or on fishing trips or at the cricket" he's on duty. James Hunt, Michael Lewis, Daryl Colquhoun, Andrew Jeffery and Petra Liverani thank you for grappling with the grammatical points at issue here. Most interesting, and a reminder of the considerable compexities of tense in the English language. Michael Lewis wrote: "There seems to be a growing tendency -- not among journalists, who are professional users of language" Michael you are too kind. How can you say that about Australian journalists (ABC included) who almost invariably write/say: "The Minister/Manager/Coach was axed..." when a professional journalist should write/say: "The Minister/Manager/Coach was dismissed from his position..." Peter Fagan ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************