Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 17:34:29 -0400 From: "H Stephen Straight (Binghamton University, SUNY)" Subject: Re: out-of-pocket The only use of out-of-pocket in my active vocabulary is to refer to expenses incurred in the course of doing the boss's job for which an employee may or may not receive reimbursement. In other words, a gift or loan of money to get one's job done. Some hypothetical (i.e. fabricated) examples: "You'll have to be out-of-pocket for that until you submit your receipt." "You don't expect me to cover a flight to Beijing as an out-of-pocket expense, do you?" "The only way to avoid out-of-pocket purchase is to put in for a travel advance, but that takes a minimum of a month." "I wish I could charge interest on my out-of-pocket balances." I've heard out-of-pocket used in other ways but have never quite been able to sort them out. Greg Pulliam's posting makes me understand why. H. Stephen STRAIGHT - Linguistic Biodata - for research use only Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 15 May 1943. Childhood caregivers all small-town Michigan-bred advance-degreed college English teachers (egad!). Early years (age 2-7) in downstate Illinois (Lincoln). Critical years in Chicago (Hyde Park, age 7-14) and Oak Park (age 14-18), Illinois--summers in Ann Arbor, MI. [Studied French, age 15-18.] College in Ann Arbor (age 18-22)--U Michigan BA in English & American Literature. [Studied French two years, German one year.] Graduate school in Chicago (age 22-27)--U Chicago MA and PhD in linguistics. [Received High Pass on Chicago's French and German graduate reading exams; studied Japanese for two academic quarters, Yucatec Maya for one year, Spanish for two months.] Lived one year (age 25-26) in Yucatan, Mexico. [Spoke Spanish and Yucatec Maya daily; lectured in Spanish to a (forgiving) university audience.] Ever since (age 27- ) in upstate New York--professing linguistics and anthropology at Binghamton U (SUNY). Lived one year (age 36-37) in Bucharest, Romania. [Spoke Romanian a little bit every day (studied semi-formally for about four months), French briefly every week.] Lived sixth months (age 52-53) in Washington, DC.