Things like not splitting infinitives, which for non-restrictive clauses and that for restrictive clauses, not ending a clause with a preposition, not starting a sentence with a conjunction.
1. to boldly peeve: never have tracked this one down either.
2. that/which hunting: Either Fowler or Strunk-White.
3. not ending a sentence with a preposition: Dryden, who actually went back and "corrected" all his earlier works. Sheesh. Even Robert Lowth didn't believe this one. In the paragraph where he writes about the "rule" he actually ends a sentence with a preposition.
4. conjunctivitis: never have traced this one down.
Your best defense is Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. It's available cheap in real-world book form and online ([url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&source[/url]). Chock full of the history of most of these "rules", and if you zombie doesn't respond rationally, you can hit them upside the head with it.
