More G.A.(A.)F.S.: "Tap on the Shoulder" or "Shove off the Ottoman"?

"I was herding Paris Hilton and her shopping entourage down a Manhattan boulevard when I broke the biggest rule of mermaid life:  Don't show your tail in public."
Diary of a Radical Mermaid by Deborah Smith


Go South, Young Man  "It takes real trust --- or gullibility --- to travel more than fifteen hundred miles from Delhi to Mysore at the urging of an e-mail from a stranger.  But that's exactly what I did.  The unsolicited message appeared on the computer screen, between power outages, in the cramped and cozy Internet cafe on the first floor of the Hotel Ajanta."
Adventures of a Continental Drifter: An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness, Danger, Lust, and the Perils of Street Food by Elliott Hester


"From the troller's bow, the man watched wind write across Steamer Bay. The bay was poked like an arrow into the side of the island; the tide had barely turned to flood.  He favored low tides in strange waters.  At low tide you could see more dangers.  And for this Raven man, Elder of a dwindling, ragtag village, dangers were everywhere."
Crown in Stolen Colors by Marcia Simpson


Therapy for Pronoun Anxiety "When a tiny word gives you a big headache, it's probably a pronoun."
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O'Conner


"It  always stood in the back garden --- what my cousins called the Murder Stone.
They teased me about it often enough.
'Put your head here and your brains will be bashed out.'
'Lie down here, and the headsman will come and chop your neck.'"
The Murder Stone by Charles Todd