Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 17:34:29 -0400

From: "H Stephen Straight (Binghamton University,

SUNY)" sstraigh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]BINGSUNS.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU

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.