>>>"chalk it up to ..."
>>
>>I figured you'll know that region of the grammar far better than I would :).
>
>Just trying to help with your knowledge opf idiomatic English.

As long as the "ma" is in the adjective.

> You remind me sometimes of the Israeli agent in NCIS :-)

Only in that respect. The rest of her (and the series) is just too macho/tough/JHarvey. Without her linguistic escapades and the two geeks on duty, it wouldn't be worth watching. BTW, I skipped the latest accidentally and I don't care if I catch a rerun or not.

>Talking of which, I've never been able to figure why we say "later on" rather than just "later", or "earlier on".

Take "climb" (verb). Does it imply direction? Take "He climbed a mountain" - it seems to imply "up", right? So "climb" means "go up something"... unless it's "climb down".

Here's something you probably took for granted: verb "to sell". Is it transitive, reflexive, neither, or all of that?

>Why on high-brow radio talk shows, the English cogniscienti always reply "Absolutely" when a yes/no answer is illicited. They also start their spiel with "I mean ..." too, when asked to come in to the confab. (How can they be explaining what they mean when they haven't already said something?)

I've made great progress in my control of reflexes. Nowadays, when someone says "you know what I mean", I don't puke. I just say "No, I don't. But you seem capable of speaking, you can tell me".