So, if it was Christmas Eve a couple of days ago for Sci-Fi Wonder Boy Henry Melton, then it felt like Christmas for me today when I opened up the mail and found this . . . (see picture)

It's been awhile since the word police reared its ugly head, but I just couldn't take it any longer. I saw it again today on a blog where the author should know better. What was it, you ask? That bear of a usage error known as "less." The word "less" is a quantitative amount, and not a numeric register. In other words you can have less water or less money, but you cannot have less dollars.

The culprit this time happened to be a book reviewer who suggests that one should rate a book that they are reading with "5 or less stars."

Of course, this is just another of those things that for no particular reason gets to me, but when reviewing, and using a five-point scale, you should rate with 5 or fewer stars.

Thanks again for listening.

Then you'll be interested in Charles Ardai's Hard Case Crime. I've read a couple of selections from this publisher and find them very satisfying escape novels. Also, check out their Twitter drawing for ARCs of upcoming releases.