Night of reminisces?

A line from a recent newspaper story about a party in honour of DPP Paula LLewelyn reads "But for the most part, it was a night of reminisces of pranks played ..." Reminisces is the second person singular (he/she) of the verb to reminisce. The sentence needs a noun (reminiscences) or the gerund which is part of the present continuous 'reminiscing'. So either '... it was a night of reminiscences ...' or '... it was a night of reminiscing...'

Prolong vs Delay

A recent CNN newscast mentioned a US swimmer who has testicular cancer, and has opted to 'prolong' the surgery until after the Olympics. The Wordsmith thought it was a mistake, but then, it was repeated all day. Surely the news anchor meant 'delay'. Prolong suggests that the action has already been initiated. Delay suggests that the action has not yet commenced.

For questions and comments, email: the speechcoach_ja @yahoo.com.