Well, I haven't seen it about a lot recently.

I like your thinking.

I've never thought of any given brick as a 'Lego'; that's just the name on the box. It's a brand name, a toy made up of a number of bricks you can put together in different ways.

Calling a pile of bricks 'Legos' is using a collective noun to describe individual parts, as you say. It's like calling single elephants 'herds'. No-one (at least that I've heard) uses this strange convention for Meccano, so why Lego? Uniformity?

Given the nature of this part of the thread, I should probably mention that I'm English.

I voted 'the force of my mind alone' because the question clearly states 'by preference'. The fact that I can't do it does not negate the fact that I'd like to.

How's your blood pressure?

It's funny because it's true.

And because of that weasels bit at the end.

Given that this is Star Wars, every coincidence can be explained by calling it 'The Will of The Force'.

Star Trek lacks this get-out.

Ah, but then they're indistinguishable from a multiplication symbol. Unless you use an asterisk, of course. Or a dot.

I had a problem with my A-level statistics teacher's handwriting, as her 'x's, 'u's and 'n's all looked alike, especially on a blackboard.

Given the frequency of their usage in the subject, this wasn't conducive to rapid comprehension.

That's ludicrous. You're perpetrating redundant slacking; why combine slashdotting and defecating when you could do them consecutively and take even more time?