Irregular

David Sedaris, interviewed in the Northwest Airlines inflight magazine (May, 2006), on why he no longer teaches English:

"Everyone thinks they can teach English, but when you're learning another language, you have to offer people hope. You can't just say, "That's the way it is. It's irregular." You have to give them something to hold on to. Like I don't know what a preposition is. I'm sure that I've used several of them today, but I don't know what they are. I think you really kiind of need to know that. Or the imperative tense. I don't know what that means."

Seen in passing:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” - James D. Nicoll