What happened to me? I'm hearing this word less and less frequently.

Examples of this are: She invited my friend and I to join her, or he gave the book to myself.

Me is a perfectly good word that is rarely used correctly in oral English. Myself is currently one of the most misused words in the English language. Are students no longer taught about the cases of nouns and pronouns in our schools?

Thank you for the opportunity to vent one of my many frustrations with the present day use of our mother tongue.

-- CAROL ADLER, Peters

"Folks"! Whenever I hear this manner of addressing an audience, I burn up.

Why, I asked myself, does this word bother me?

I feel that I am being talked down to, as I associate "folks" with quaint, outmoded people.

I looked it up the dictionary and, as usual, found quite a number of meanings for the word. But the one that closely matched my perception was this: "a kind or class of people, e.g., old plain or plain folk."

So, I figure that the speaker who uses "folks" as a form of address is trying to make his audience feel comfortable. Or is it that I feel he is condescending to his audience? If he felt equal to his audience, he would not feel the need to make them feel comfortable -- so he feels he is a cut above them.

It's like white people who go overboard in being "nice" to black people to assure them that they don't think there is anything wrong in being black. The very fact that they feel they have to compensate by being overly nice is telling the black people that there is something wrong with being black, at least to the person who is being overly nice.

So, my fellow Pittsburghers: If you ever do speak to the public, call them "Ladies and Gentlemen" or "friends." But please don't say "folks" -- it's just too folksy.

-- THERESE McKENZIE, Bridgeville

I have had it with the overwhelming use of apostrophes in plural words.

Words are commonly pluralized by adding the letter "s," sometimes "es" or, perhaps, changing a "y" to "ies."

It is not made plural by inserting an apostrophe!

This would include my latest sighting of a bin at a store marked "hanger's." The hanger's what? This clearly makes the hanger possessive.

This doesn't just occur on quick hand-made signs. I have also seen several examples on permanent business signage and in newspaper advertising.

-- ANDREA ROS, Moon

Perhaps I'm over-reacting, but I get sick of people using "issues" and "problems" as if they were perfect synonyms and can always be used interchangeably.

However, I'm not completely sure if I'm right in my objections and would like professional help on this issue (not problem).

I acknowledge that the word "issue" is a word with many meanings. My Random House Dictionary has almost a page of definitions, 35 different ones in fact.

Young people seem to be the worst offenders, as they almost always say "I have issues," never problems. But one also hears it more and more from educated and mature people on television.

To me the word "issues" involves weighty questions of a public nature, such as political or religious issues and is not the same, say, as personal problems. I wouldn't be surprised if I heard someone complain about an "issue child" rather than a "problem child."

This trend is only a few years old as far as I can tell. I wonder: What is the consensus among learned wordsmiths about this issue?

-- DAVID W. SOUTHERN, North Strabane