(болезнь на неначальных стадиях :-) )...Readers who have this condition in its advanced stages not only notice the particular thing that annoys them whenever it occurs. They notice it, with a little leap of delight, when it does not occur but might have done. One of them, as a matter of fact, sent me a mesage this week beginning, Congratulations to the Guardian for printing as if (October 18, page 3, col 2) [in place of like]. This related to a quoted sentence from one of the survivors of the Hatfield rail crash: The roof of one carriage had been peeled off as if it was a sardine can.Did this mean, the reader wondered, that like was irritatingly used instead of as if only when we were not quoting but using our own words? So it was not a mesage of congratulation after all - not one, anyway, without a twist of the lip.Here are a couple of examples...

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