>>>>Paying the bills and opening other official looking mail from the past week, I just got a smile from this one. It is from the U.S. Census Bureau and warmly addressed to "TO RESIDENT AT...." Wait, it gets better. This is not the new census form, which I have read will be much less time consuming than earlier ones. No, this is just a heads up. Here is the beginning:
>>>>
>>>>"Dear Resident:
>>>>
>>>>"About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly."
>>>
>>>This mean you're supposed to try it on and, if it doesn't fit, put on weight till you do?
>>>In UK we fill IN forms.
>>>
>>
>>"Fill out" is fine here. We all know there are lots of small usage differences like this. "In hospital" vs. "in the hospital," for example.
>>
>>There are even differences within the U.S. In most of the country we get in line. In New York they get on line. You join a queue.
>
>So I'm confused as to what you found so amusing about the wording, aside from the unnecessary expense. We had summat like that not too long ago, from local govt, but can't remember what. Maybe the registration of voters form.
>
>BTW in NY how distinguish between joining a queue and being furnished with broadband (ie getting on line)?
>
>BTW2 just in case, here one fills out a costume, eg maybe getting a bit too big for a suit, looking ripped in a tight t-shirt, etc.
>
>BTW3 why when I write "etc." does the spell checker highlight it and offer "etc." as an alternative spelling in the short-cut menu?

It wasn't the wording that (semi) amused me. It was that they sent a letter to every household in the United States which said nothing more than that they were going to send another, more important, letter in a week.

There was a story in the news yesterday that census forms were also sent to parking spaces. There was a picture of a woman standing in front of her reserved garage parking space, holding the census form it received.