(Just keeping the room above freezing) It's a good thing I'm not allowed to comment, because in my dotage I find that want to wander off topic. Take the question of "crossroad" vs. "crossroads." Yeats published in "Crossways," but I think "crossway" is unusual. On the other hand, I've heard crosswalk, rather than" crosswalks" as the word for the intersection of paths.

@ Sumelic Here's a line from "The Devil's Curst Wife:" The devil he got to the forks in the road; Ol lady you're one hell of a load!' I'm not saying the line is correct, but it certainly is old. Your Y.G.D.P is impressive. Here's another southwest VA idiom, which I like: It may have rained, I might should have brought the laundry in.

@Airymouse Yes, it's interesting how sites have different cultures related to voting. One thing that seems nice about Math is that they have Mathematics, which is explicitly for people studying math at any level, and then Math Overflow for professional mathematicians. I think that's a better way of dividing things than ELU vs. ELL. I guess some members have the idea that Linguistics is the professional counterpart to this site, but in practice it doesn't seem to function that way.