[dllthomas]

So, let me preface this by saying I'm well aware this isn't the most important issue here, by miles.

Having said that, is anyone else bothered by the (to my ear) misuse of "let alone"? The phrase "Not X, let alone Y" is supposed to have Y be more extreme than X, right? Implying "certainly not Y, because not even X, so we can let Y alone and not even talk about it."

[itsybitsycoder]

Yep. People hear idioms, like the way they sound, and repeat them without stopping to understand what they mean. In this case it's clear what he meant, but sometimes people will string together a bunch of these occurrences and it can become extremely confusing. I've read comments on HN where people are mistakenly arguing the exact opposite of the point they're trying to argue, because they're using their idioms the wrong way around.