The Dreaded Double Negative... English Rant

Did you ever have that one professor, one boss, one family member who just made everything more difficult? The one that could never be straightforward? The one that made you internally cringe every time his mouth opened because you feared what awkwardness would come out of it?

If you are picturing someone right now, well, that stinks for you! I have never known anyone like this (Please note my sarcasm...). 

I am studying for my clinical course... just diligently reading away at my notes... being bombarded by facts and dosages and numerical cut-offs and EKG algorithms... when I come across this sentence:

EKG at rest without angina present not uncommonly is normal.

While this makes complete sense to me, and I truly do understand the choice of words, I just want to throw it out there that double negatives, more often than not, are ridiculous.

Now, in this case, to take the double negative out and say that "EKG at rest without angina present commonly is normal" would be incorrect, therefore requiring the double negative. And this is just too bad, because that sentence stinks.

Thus, my entire studying game has been thrown off and I cannot get off my English language soapbox. Therefore, I will share with you two of my biggest pet peeves:

- Formal writing with CONTRACTIONS!!!! Just the other day, I read a statement written by a candidate running for an office at my medical school. Is it terrible that I saw the contractions, immediately stopped reading, and voted for the other person?

- SUBJECT/VERB AGREEMENT. Having grown up in the "North," I developed a whole new love and appreciation for my 4th grade English teacher and good ole' subject/verb agreement when I moved to the "South" to teach high school and on the very first day of class, the PRINCIPAL got on the loudspeaker and said phrases such as, "We was" and "They was".... NO, WE WAS NOT! THEY WAS NOT! 

If you, dear Reader, commonly do these things.... the English language would grant you great Karma if you stopped your crimes and became an English Language Law Abiding Citizen. (And all the Type A Weirdos -- me-- would be forever thankful!).