Commonly misused words: grumble here.

I want to tear my eyes out and peel and boil them when people use the word "tangent" to mean "tantrum." It happens most often on message boards. People will write "My husband came home and went off on a little tangent because my car leaked oil in the driveway." I want to say "Really? What was he talking about before he noticed the oil? Did he ever get back on topic?"

Not on this message board, of course. We're all good little grammarians. (insert smiley emoticon here, which I won't, because emoticons generally frighten me)

This may be a regional thing, but my inlaws are extremely lax in their use of the word "whenever." They use it to mean when. As in "Whenever Uncle Mark came home from work yesterday, he brought that cake." I picture Uncle Mark coming home from work repeatedly, carrying the same cake.

Did anyone catch on American Idol last week when Diana Ross kept instructing the kids to pronunciate? Certainly she's no word-smith, but you'd think after 40 years in the biz someone would have corrected her...

Often happens in business settings--copious misuse of term "myself." I think people think it's correct because it sounds smarter, bur there's nothing correct about "Quarterly sales reports should be e-mailed to Suzie and myself by noon tomorrow." What? You're going to e-mail the reports to yourself?