BANK SHOT -- "There is optimism that a new round of European talks are going to result in an announcement ..." according to a New York Times biz page story. Some would insist that the subject of that sentence is "round," which requires the singular "is." Others maintain that the verb should agree with the nearest noun; in this case "talks," and therefore the plural form is appropriate. And those of a linguistic bent would cite the entire "noun phrase" as the dominator. In addition, there is the matter of the singular article "a" as the decider in chief.
When in doubt, rephrase. Change the verb phrase "are going to result" to "will result" and everybody's happy, includig the Samurai Rim Man, who noted that using two words instead of four makes for better writing.
TUNING UP -- The terms "tuba" and "sousaphone" are not interchangeable. The big circular one that rests on the player's shoulder and has a forward-facing bell was named after bandmaster John Philip Sousa, who invented it because the traditional tuba was too hard to march with. (Yes, I just ended a sentence with a preposition. But as Churchill said, the ruling against it "is the sort of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.")
GLEANINGS of an ITINERANT SPELLER -- "Predominatly." The verb is predominate, the noun predominant, and the adverb predominantly." Adverbs are often formed by adding -ly to a noun or adjective, and are used to modify verbs or other modifiers. No matter its intended use, "predominatly" is misspelled.
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