It’s a bird, it’s a boat, it’s Superman: Crazy, calm and confident.

I READ the following on Entertainment Weekly and would appreciate your take on the phrase.

Snyder saw something different. “He walked out and no one laughed,” says the director, a geek pop idol for his work on Dawn of the Dead, 300, and Watchmen. “Other actors put that suit on and it’s a joke, even if they’re great actors. Henry put it on, and he exuded this kind of crazy-calm confidence that just made me go, ‘Wow. Okay, this is Superman.’ ” – sm

The phrase is new to me too. The writer, like many creative people, probably invented it to suit his purpose. Let me try to give my take on it.

I can easily imagine someone exuding a “calm confidence”. It is a quiet self-assurance in the person’s manner, e.g. in the manner of a political leader who does not lose his cool during a press conference; or David Beckham at his best when taking a free kick.

But a “crazy-calm confidence”, I imagine, is calm confidence shown in very unlikely circumstances. Those circumstances may be having to dress in a Superman suit. The suit seems made for little boys, and a grown man would look incongruous, and most of them uneasy, in one. No wonder the other actors looked “a joke” in it. But Henry must have looked as if it was the most natural thing for him to be wearing, and he therefore looked assured, despite the incongruity.

Word missing?

This is the definition of “holocaust” from OALD: “A situation in which many things are destroyed and many people killed, especially because of a war or a fire”. Isn’t there supposed to be an “are” between people” and “killed”? – Jacky

Yes, there is supposed to be an “are” before “killed”, but it is deliberately left out to avoid repetition. This is an example of the use of “ellipsis”, i.e. leaving out a word or words (in a sentence or conversation) to avoid repetition when the meaning is obvious from the context. The fact that you know what the missing word is shows that it is not necessary to use it.

Here’s an example of ellipsis similar to what you noticed, from Collins Cobuild English Grammar (2005).

“One soldier was killed and another wounded.” (p.374, 8.140)

Like the sentence you quoted, there are two passive verbs, but only one auxiliary verb is used. The other “was” is “understood”.

In times past

In one of your answers last Thursday, you mentioned that we use “at/over the weekend”. But there are instances where “during” and “in” are used for “the weekend”. Are they wrong? – BH

It is all right to use “during the weekend” in some contexts, but I was asked about the usage of “in” and “at” and couldn’t cover every preposition.

The phrase “in the weekend” is used by some people, but “at” is the preposition most often used in British English, and “on” in American English. Below are some examples of usage given by three online advanced learner’s dictionaries:

1. at the weekend UK (US on the weekend) ...

What did you do at the weekend?

(Definition of weekend noun from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

2. at the weekend British English on the weekend American English

I never work at the weekend.

(Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

3. Are you doing anything over the weekend?

(British English) The office is closed at the weekend.

(especially North American English) The office is closed on the weekend.

(British English, informal) I like to go out on a weekend

(Definition of weekend noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

I also did searches for the phrases “in the weekend”, “during the weekend”, “at the weekend” and “over the weekend” on Yahoo UK and Ireland “Web search” facility, and restricted my search to UK sites only. These were the results:

“in the weekend” – found in 468,000 websites

“during the weekend” – found in 917,000 websites

“at the weekend” – found in 13,300,000 websites

“over the weekend” – found in 10,700,000 websites

Tenses in letters

Please help me with the following tenses that appear in a letter:

1a) The above matter and the telephone conversation between your Cik Siti and our Puan Fatimah dated Feb 8, 2011 is/are referred.

1b) We refer to the above matter and the telephone conversation between your Cik Siti and our Puan Fatimah Wong on even date.

2. We enclose/enclosed also herewith the fresh copies of Page/page 9, 10 and 11 for your further action.

(I would choose enclosed because when people receive my letter, the act has already passed.) – MOE Chinese reader

1a) It should be “The above matter and the telephone conversation between your Cik Siti and our Puan Fatimah dated Feb 8, 2011 are referred.” because there are two subjects in the sentence:

i. the above matter

ii. the conversation

However, there are errors in your sentence. The passive construction ending with “are referred” is awkward and ungrammatical. Also, conversations are not “dated” as letters and other written communications are. It would be better to use the main structure of your Sentence (b), but with some changes, i.e. “We refer to the above matter and the telephone conversation between your Cik Siti and our Puan Fatimah Wong on Feb 8, 2011.”

1b) The phrase is “of even date”, which means “of the same date”. It is an old-fashioned phrase and used mainly in legal and business language, and more used in the US than Britain. Your letter will be better understood if you write “of the same date”.

2. It should be: “We enclose also herewith the fresh copies of pages 9, 10 and 11 for your further action.”

It should be “enclose”. When you write a letter, write in your own present time, and don’t worry that by the time your recipient gets the letter, what you write will be in that person’s past. For example, you may begin a letter to an old friend, whom you haven’t met or written to for years, in this way: “I am writing this letter to you to see if you still remember me ...” You don’t write: “I wrote this letter to you ... etc”

We don’t need a capital “P” to write “page 9”, but since there are three pages mentioned, you should write “pages 9, 10 and 11.” Here is an example from the Internet:

“Changes have been made on pages 1, 2 and 3 ...” (from a British Revenue and Customs department document)

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