The word errand is most commonly used in the sense of a short journey taken to perform some necessary duty. Some examples of errands are: taking or fetching clothes from the cleaners; taking mail to the post office; filling the car with fuel, taking sacks of leaves to the compost center, etc.

The word errand comes from Old English ærende “message, mission.” The message was usually carried by a servant or low-ranking soldier.

Errand still has the connotation of something of minor importance that can be carried out by anyone. An employee might complain of being “an errand boy” if all he’s allowed to do is unimportant work.

The expression to go on a fool’s errand means to set out to accomplish something that turns out to be impossible to accomplish. Similar to going on fool’s errand is going on a wild goose chase.

A chore can be simply a necessary domestic task such as vacuuming or taking out the garbage, or it can be used in the sense of a really tiresome, time-consuming task.

Here are some examples from the internet of the two meanings of chore.

Chore as household responsibilities

Let’s face it - sometimes, doing your chores can be a drag!

Doing household chores does not have to be boring or a waste of time. If you don’t have time to go to the gym and workout or stay at home and lift weights, you can combine muscle building with doing household chores.

There are many ways to save time doing your daily chores. You can make life easier by staying ahead on things instead of procrastinating. Daily chores include laundry, dishes, sweep, vacuum and mopping. Even washing up your sinks in your kitchen and bathrooms.

Chore as an onerous task

That sure was a chore trying over and over to get you all the actual link.

Washing my toddler’s hair was a chore…moving around causing shampoo and water in eyes and ears…which drove her crazy.

Combined with more explosions than the bombing of Iraq with Michael Bay’s patented swooping camera shots, the film was a chore to watch from beginning to end.

Running Errands and Doing Chores

Can you tell me which is correct: coming down the pipe or coming down the pike? I have heard it both ways.

The original expression is coming down the pike, but it may be going the way of our friend free rein.

The word pike in this expression is a shortening of turnpike.

Originally “turnpike” meant a toll booth, but came to mean the highway itself.

My Southern grandmother would say things like

That Bessie Dean would take up with the first man that came down the pike.

The expression coming down the pike originated before the days of TV and the internet. In those days most new ideas came to town by way of the highway. Upon opening the morning newspaper, one might say

Let’s see what’s new coming down the pike.

Here’s a quotation from an international website about economics:

There is more bad news coming down the pike, news of such magnitude that no amount of ordinary manipulation is liable to conceal it.–GlobalResearch.ca

In Arkansas pike in the sense of “road” is still fairly common.

In other regions, speakers unfamiliar with the term try to make sense of the expression “coming down the pike” by altering pike to pipe.

For these speakers the metaphor is that of a substance moving through a pipe or a pipeline and not of someone walking along a highway.

The “coming down the pipe” version can only be nurtured by such things as a blog advertising The Pipeline Show. The blog title is “Coming Down the Pipe.”

Piker
Also derived from the turnpike pike, the words pike and piker were nineteenth century West Coast terms of contempt for poor white migrants from the Southern states–rather like the word Okie in the twentieth century.

An English dialect word piker with the meaning of “vagrant, tramp gypsy” existed as early as 1828. Vagrants wander the “pike.”

The U.S. word with the similar meaning is thought to derive from the name of a county in Missouri. Presumably many poor people from Pike County moved to California to find a better life.

As happens with ethnic slurs, the word piker took on more and more negative meanings.

piker: 1. Originally: a cautious or timid gambler who makes only small bets; one who plays for small stakes. Hence: a person who takes no chances; a cowardly or stingy person; a shirker, a ‘small-timer’.

 2. Finance. A small-scale speculator or investor.B. adj. (attrib.). Mean, shirking, cowardly.

When I was growing up I often heard my father and his brothers use the word piker in the sense of “cheapskate” or “tightwad.”

Coming Down the Pike

I understood that making text entities with non-letter characters into a plural form, you separate the s from the term with an apostrophe - 1900’s, Jones’, Smith’s, or Bang!’s.  So, why no apostrophe with 1980s?

A lot of writers share this reader’s understanding that non-letter characters are pluralized by adding apostrophe s.

Alas.

Alas, indeed. That pesky apostrophe raises a lot of blood pressure for writers of English.

If I had my druthers, we’d phase out altogether the use the apostrophe to form the possessive of nouns. What meaning would be lost if we wrote my mothers birthday, the cats tail or the cats tails?

Teachers and editors could save their red ink for dealing with the apostrophe and plurals.

NOTE: I’ve received so many protests regarding these facetious remarks that I hereby withdraw them. We do need the apostrophe to form the possessive. Mea culpa, dear readers.

I can’t really answer the reader’s question. What I can do is lay out what the Chicago Manual of Style says about when to use an apostrophe and when not to. And it has a lot to say. Here are only some of the rules this style guide offers.

Don’t use an apostrophe to pluralize a proper name or other capitalized noun:
Many Pakistanis have immigrated to the U.S. (not Pakistani’s)
I’ll be occupied for the next three Thursdays. (not Thursday’s)
The Jeffersons live here. (not the Jefferson’s)

NOTE: The CMS suggests that if you want to pluralize an awkward name like Waters or Rogers, you may want to reword the sentence to avoid writing the Waterses or Rogerses. (or Maddoxes?)

Don’t use an apostrophe to pluralize a title:
I have three Madame Bovarys and five Animal Farms. (Type the title in italics and the s in Roman face.

When forming the plural of words and hyphenated phrases that aren’t nouns but are used as nouns sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t:
I want no ifs or buts.
Here are the dos and don’ts of blogging.
I’ve written 25 thank-yous.
BUT
I’m tired of all his maybe’s.

DO NOT use an apostrophe to form the plural of capital letters used as words, abbreviations that contain no interior periods, and numerals used as nouns:
the three Rs.
the 1990s
lengthy URLs

NOTE: For the abbreviations p. (page), n. (note), and MS (manuscript), the plurals are pp., nn., and MSS

And for you scientific types, special rules apply for the plural of SI symbols:

No periods are used after any of the SI symbols for units, and the same symbols are used for both the singular and the plural. Most symbols are lowercased; exceptions are those that stand for units derived from proper names (A for ampere, etc.) and those that must be distinguished from similar lowercased forms. All units are lowercased in their spelled-out form except for degree Celsius (°C).

For those of you who, like me, hadn’t heard of SI symbols, you’ll find a list here.

DO use the apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation that combines upper and lowercase letters or has interior periods:
The department graduated five M.A.’s and two Ph.D.’s this year.

NOTE: If you leave out the periods, you can write MAs but you’d still have to write PhD’s.

DO use the apostrophe to form the plural of lowercase letters:
Mind your p’s and q’s.

DO NOT use the apostrophe to form the plural of capital letters:
What the CMS actually says is
Capital letters do not normally require an apostrophe in the plural.

One could write a sentence like this without confusing a reader:
You need to improve the formation of your Ts and Zs.

But one might be tempted to reach for the apostrophes with a sentence like this:
You need to improve the formation of your Ss, Is, and Us.

And finally—DRUM ROLL–our reader’s question about using an apostrophe with non-letter characters:

DO NOT use an apostrophe to form the plural of a number:
The 1920s were noted for excess.
I bowled two 300s and two 238s.

Source: Chicago Manual of Style, paragraphs 7.9, 7.12, 7,14, 7.15, 7.16, 7.65, 9.59.

When to Form a Plural with an Apostrophe

When they recovered their composure I went on to explain that they could use it in only one context.

They could not say or write

I ain’t

because there was a standard expression they could use:

I’m not.

They could not say or write

He ain’t, she ain’t, or they ain’t

because there were standard forms for those:

He isn’t, she isn’t, they aren’t.

They could, however, say or write

Ain’t I?

I pointed out that the usual “standard” form of “aren’t I” was not exactly grammatical. Would anyone ever say “are I not?”

My eccentric rule had the effect of making my students think about the verbs is and are.

And it made us all realize how seldom anyone has occasion to say ain’t I? anyway.

What’s Wrong with “Ain’t”

Nowadays, thanks to email, we can be zapped with rejection in a matter of minutes!

Nevertheless, email queries are a boon to writer and agent. They save time, paper and postage. Not to mention unproductive fantasizing.

Much email writing breeds carelessness in most of us so it’s a good idea to pay special attention to any email we direct to a literary agent.

Here are some guidelines.

Subject line: Put something meaningful in the subject line. For example, a meaningful subject line for a query about a novel called It Was A Dark and Stormy Night would be

Query: It Was A Dark and Stormy Night.

Contact information: The usual place in an email for contact information is at the end, after your name. However, in this case it’s a probably a good idea to let the agent know immediately whose query is unscrolling before him. Just put the same contact information at the top left of the email that you have after your name at the bottom.

Greeting: Use the same salutation you would in a letter. Do your homework. Address your query to an individual, not an agency. Find out if the honorific is Mr. or Ms.

Avoid Email Speak: Don’t pepper your query with abbreviations like BTW or LOL. Think “business letter.” Write the email as if you were going to mail it the old-fashioned way.

Formatting: Keep your email query brief. Avoid long screeds of words. Break it up into short word groupings. I hesitate to say “paragraphs.” In web writing proper paragraphing is not always an option when the goal is to present easy-to-read clumps of words. And above all, DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS!

Correct spelling and usasge: Most emails are composed on the fly. We open Compose, dash off our message and hit Send. That’s not the way to handle an email query. A single misspelling or misused pronoun can shoot you down with the agent. Write your query in a word processor. Use the spell checker. Run it out and scrutinize the hard copy. When your query is error-free, then and only then paste it into the email and hit Send.

Tone and Style: Be businesslike. You can be cordial without being chummy. Don’t try to crack a joke. Jokes have a way of coming out all wrong in an email. And as for emoticons. Puhleez!

Attachments: Unless the agent has asked for an attachment, don’t send one. Most people, not just literary agents, maintain a strict policy of not opening attachments from strangers.

Links: Given the tiny bit of space allowed by an email to present ourselves, it’s tempting to want to include links to sites that tell more about us or showcase our writing. It’s probably not a good idea. All the agent wants in this first approach is the gist of your proposal and an idea of your professional credentials. By all means, place a link to your professional website after your name at the end of the email, but don’t pepper the body of the email with links.

The OWL at Purdue offers general guidelines at Email Etiquette.

Business managers who would like to draft an email policy guide for their employees will find 32 rules of email etiquette at a site called Emailreplies.com.

Emailing a Literary Agent