A word too many

When extra words are ill-advised.

IN the recent past when I was reading the papers, as is my usual form of relaxation, something in the papers caught my eye, triggered the grey cells in my head, set me on a train of thought — the idiom is “train of thought”, but shouldn’t it be “train of thoughts”? (considering that one definition of “train” in Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004 is “a series of connected events or thoughts”) — and led me to pen this rambling piece which, because it covers fairly wide ground and is too long for a single tabloid page, has to be split into two articles, of which this is the first of two. (Yes, I know! I have been verbose — but intentionally so. More to follow ...)