The Noun and the Verb.

Why oh why do people say ``invite`` when they mean ``invitation``? It distresses me to see how loosely language is used. Some years ago, people did not pay heed and even less respect to art. If someone asked you what your profession was and you said, `art critic`, they would turn around and say, `yea, yea, but what do you do for a living?`  Although it riled me to hear such things, perhaps they did have a point after all. For, art, and most of all, art criticism, fetched very little money. And then fate spun on her axis and suddenly art was one of the most expensive luxuries ever. It was a what`s the word? Status symbol. Income tax officers suddenly began to call you to acknowledge, not ask after your profession (they wanted quick-fix courses in order to catch the art bandits). All that goes up must come crashing down, said the Sensex to the People. And down it did come. Tumbling down. Noone is buying art these days. Noone is stupid enough to buy art when they could be sending Invites to others to come buy theirs.