Philip Paige, a real estate broker from Madrid, St. Lawrence County, stands atop the splintered stump of a white pine in the Adirondacks that was thought to be one of New York state's tallest trees.

There are yardsticks (unwritten) that a majority of people expect anybody with the prefix ‘Dr’, ‘Eng’ or ‘Prof’ before his or her name to meet. Such people are presumed to be highly intelligent.

This is the Grammar Guy column, a weekly feature written by Curtis Honeycutt. It’s the time of year when we get outside and curse at weeds. Yes, it’s spring, which means I’ll be refusing garden gloves ...