Last year, Ron Abrahamson, Moorhead, sent “Neighbors” this picture of the canoe he bought.

A plaque on it says it was made by McGregor Industries Inc. of Moorhead.

Ron wondered if anyone had information about this company.

That led to an email to “Neighbors” from Jeff Guy, Fargo, who wrote, “There’s a huge steel construction magnate in Pennsylvania with the McGregor Industries moniker.

“Can’t help but wonder if one of their clan came to the Midwest and used their metallurgy skills to do something other than make stairs.”

Could be, Jeff.

Anybody out there who knows something about the maker of this canoe? Or about when the canoe was manufactured?

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Language problems

Another recent column noted that many people misuse the English language , such as saying, “Where is it at?” and you don’t need the word “at.”

That column led Larry Kraft, Fargo, to write that it “reminded me of redundancies uttered by local weather announcers.

“Why do they insist on saying, ‘The temperature right now is,’” he writes; “or even worse, ‘The current temperature right now is’?

“They might repeat one of both of those for a half dozen cities listed on the screen, not just the first one on their list, which would be bad enough.

“Or,” he says, "'the temperature outside is.’ Do we really tune in to find out what their inside temperature is?”

Myrna Lyng, Mayville, N.D., who contributed to the first column about wording, now adds, “I cringe a bit when people say ‘anxious’ when they really mean ‘eager.’

“Furthermore,” she writes, “‘‘it’s’ instead of ‘its’ is a grammatical irritant.

“Have you noted that people use ‘also’ and ‘too’ in the same sentence?”

And Dean Rust, of Fargo and Mesa, Ariz., writes about “Improper word usage, like ‘prostrate’ when ‘prostate’ is the intended word.”

If you have an item of interest for this column, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107, fax it to 701-241-5487 or email blind@forumcomm.com.