McCartney plays Auckland

Paul McCartney played a wonderful, crowd-pleasing, 40-song show at Mt Smart in Auckland last night. To appreciate just how deep McCartney's catalogue is, however, consider that the list of songs he played the last time he was in Auckland (in 1993) that he didn't play last night includes:

Drive My Car
Coming Up
Another Day
We Can Work It Out
Michelle
Here, There And Everywhere
My Love
Magical Mystery Tour
The Long And Winding Road
Paperback Writer
Fixing A Hole
Penny Lane
I Saw Her Standing There

A show consisting of just these 13 songs would contain more landmarks than almost any other rock show you'll ever see. All Hail Sir Paul!

Update: And consider these songs that McCartney (solely or mostly wrote but) omitted both times:

She's Leaving Home
I'm Looking Through You
She Loves You (a super-close co-write w. Lennon)
I Want To Hold Your Hand (another super-close co-write w. Lennon)
Fool On The Hill
With a Little Help From My Friends
Let Him In
For No One
Got to Get You Into My Life
Eight Days a Week
Hello Goodbye
Martha My Dear
Wonderful Christmas Time
Step Inside Love
When I'm 64
You Won't See Me
No More Lonely Nights

It's hard not to conclude that McCartney could play a show consisting just of songs that he never or very rarely plays that would still probably be the most monumental show (short perhaps of an Abba or Smiths reunion, or a Bowie or Prince resurrection) that you could ever hope to see.

Fretting about -f to -ves pluralization

Here are some presumably rock-solid -ves plurals:

calf - calves, elf - elves, half - halves, knife - knives, leaf - leaves, life - lives, loaf - loaves, self - selves (ourselves, yourselves, themselves), sheaf - sheaves, shelf - shelves, thief - thieves, wolf - wolves, wife - wives

But I've seen 'wifes' and 'knifes' (the latter presumably sponsored by confusion with the verb form). Any Game of Thrones-fan who uses 'direwolfs' should be eaten by one.

Other -ves plurals are less solid:

dwarf - dwarves, roof - rooves, hoof - hooves, scarf - scarves, wharf - wharves

Straight -s plurals for these are very common and even predominant in some cases, e.g., to my slight horror, 'roofs' is almost orthodox in 2017.

We should admit that English is wildly inconsistent about this kind of end-formation. Many important -f words reserve their -ves end-formation for a widely used verb, especially (apparently) where serious ambiguity would result if the -ves form were also used for a plural:

belief - believes, grief - grieves, relief - relieves

But 'leaves' is a very prominent (homophonic) verbal-form for the plural of 'leaf'!

In sum, both polysemy and orthographic irregularity are so extreme in English that the language is a barely functional contraption. Nobody can spell it, and almost nobody can use it verbally for any extended period without errors. The 'Burn It Down!' impulse of 20C Esperantists made a lot of sense.

Update: Under 70 to go from Wright's List

47	The Roaring Twenties	Raoul Walsh, 1939
52	The Bank Dick	Edward F. Cline, 1940
106	Glen or Glenda?	Edward D. Wood Jr., 1953
198	Bitter Harvest	Peter Graham Scott, 1963
199	Black Sabbath	Mario Bava, 1963
214	First Men in the Moon	Nathan Juran, 1964
221	The Pawnbroker	Sidney Lumet, 1964
226	Dr Terror's House of Horrors	Freddie Francis, 1965
243	Kill Baby, Kill!	Mario Bava, 1966
255	In the Heat of the Night	Norman Jewison, 1967
290	Vixen!	Russ Meyer, 1968
307	Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?	Lee H. Katzin, Bernard Girard, 1969
318	Scream and Scream Again	Gordon Hessler, 1970
401	White Lightning	Joseph Sargent, 1973
406	Busting	Peter Hyams, 1974
474	Death on the Nile	John Guillermin, 1978
483	Straight Time	Ulu Grosbard, 1978
485	The 36th Chamber of Shaolin	Chia-Liang Liu, 1978
524	Cutter's Way	Ivan Passer, 1981
535	Sharky's Machine	Burt Reynolds, 1981
542	Venom	Piers Haggard, 1981
559	Vice Squad	Gary Sherman, 1982
560	Xtro	Harry Bromley Davenport, 1982
564	Project A	Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, 1983
593	Wheels on Meals	Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, 1984
619	A Chinese Ghost Story	Ching Siu-Tung, 1987
643	Dragons Forever	Corey Yuen, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, 1988
644	Ghosts... of the Civil Dead	John Hillcoat, 1988
658	The Killer	John Woo, 1989
659	Violent Cop	Takeshi Kitano, 1989
674	Homicide	David Mamet, 1991
676	Johnny Suede	Tom DiCillo, 1991
680	Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky	Lam Ngai Kai, 1991
683	The People Under the Stairs	Wes Craven, 1991
695	Police Story 3: Super Cop	Stanley Tong, 1992
698	Romper Stomper	Geoffrey Wright, 1992
702	A Man in Uniform	David Wellington, 1993
703	Bad Boy Bubby	Rolf de Heer, 1993
710	Raining Stones	Ken Loach, 1993
712	Suture	Scott McGehee, David Siegel, 1993
713	The Legend II	Corey Yuen, 1993
720	Fist of Legend	Gordon Chan, 1994
728	The Legend of Drunken Master	Jackie Chan, Chia-Liang Liu, 1994
750	Small Faces	Gillies MacKinnon, 1996
765	Retroactive	Louis Morneau, 1997
774	Love Is the Devil	John Maybury, 1998
781	The General	John Boorman, 1998
784	A Room for Romeo Brass	Shane Meadows, 1999
785	American Movie	Chris Smith, 1999
800	Wild Zero	Tetsuro Takeuchi, 1999
804	Chuck & Buck	Miguel Arteta, 2000
812	The Low Down	Jamie Thraves, 2000
846	Windy City Heat	Bobcat Goldthwait, 2003
849	Born to Fight	Panna Rittikrai, 2004
851	Dead Man's Shoes	Shane Meadows, 2004
855	Man on Fire	Tony Scott, 2004
863	Brick	Rian Johnson, 2005
908	Le Donk & Scorz-ayz-ee	Shane Meadows, 2009
911	World's Greatest Dad	Bobcat Goldthwait, 2009
912	13 Assassins	Takashi Miike, 2010
913	Animal Kingdom	David Michod, 2010
916	Point Blank	Fred Cavayé, 2010
920	The Town	Ben Affleck, 2010
921	The Trip	Michael Winterbottom, 2010
922	Bernie	Richard Linklater, 2011
924	Michael	Markus Schleinzer, 2011
930	Anna Karenina	Joe Wright, 2012
943	The Hunt	Thomas Vinterberg, 2012

Update: Under 100 from Wright's list left to go

23	Love Me Tonight	Rouben Mamoulian, 1932
47	The Roaring Twenties	Raoul Walsh, 1939
52	The Bank Dick	Edward F. Cline, 1940
60	Road to Morocco	David Butler, 1942
106	Glen or Glenda?	Edward D. Wood Jr., 1953
125	The Court Jester	Norman Panama, Melvin Frank, 1955
150	A Night to Remember	Roy Ward Baker, 1958
198	Bitter Harvest	Peter Graham Scott, 1963
199	Black Sabbath	Mario Bava, 1963
212	Blood and Black Lace	Mario Bava, 1964
214	First Men in the Moon	Nathan Juran, 1964
221	The Pawnbroker	Sidney Lumet, 1964
226	Dr Terror's House of Horrors	Freddie Francis, 1965
243	Kill Baby, Kill!	Mario Bava, 1966
249	What's Up, Tiger Lily?	Woody Allen, 1966
255	In the Heat of the Night	Norman Jewison, 1967
263	Robbery	Peter Yates, 1967
283	The Boston Strangler	Richard Fleischer, 1968
285	The Devil Rides Out	Terence Fisher, 1968
290	Vixen!	Russ Meyer, 1968
307	Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?	Lee H. Katzin, Bernard Girard, 1969
314	Hatchet for the Honeymoon	Mario Bava, 1970
318	Scream and Scream Again	Gordon Hessler, 1970
331	Four Flies on Grey Velvet	Dario Argento, 1971
353	Asylum	Roy Ward Baker, 1972
361	Tales from the Crypt	Freddie Francis, 1972
401	White Lightning	Joseph Sargent, 1973
406	Busting	Peter Hyams, 1974
424	Thunderbolt and Lightfoot	Michael Cimino, 1974
468	The Sentinel	Michael Winner, 1977
470	Blue Collar	Paul Schrader, 1978
474	Death on the Nile	John Guillermin, 1978
480	Long Weekend	Colin Eggleston, 1978
483	Straight Time	Ulu Grosbard, 1978
485	The 36th Chamber of Shaolin	Chia-Liang Liu, 1978
498	Rock 'n' Roll High School	Jerry Zucker, Joe Dante, Allan Arkush, 1979
503	The Wanderers	Philip Kaufman, 1979
524	Cutter's Way	Ivan Passer, 1981
535	Sharky's Machine	Burt Reynolds, 1981
542	Venom	Piers Haggard, 1981
545	Creepshow	George A. Romero, 1982
559	Vice Squad	Gary Sherman, 1982
560	Xtro	Harry Bromley Davenport, 1982
564	Project A	Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, 1983
588	The Hit	Stephen Frears, 1984
593	Wheels on Meals	Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, 1984
599	Into the Night	John Landis, 1985
619	A Chinese Ghost Story	Ching Siu-Tung, 1987
643	Dragons Forever	Corey Yuen, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, 1988
644	Ghosts... of the Civil Dead	John Hillcoat, 1988
658	The Killer	John Woo, 1989
659	Violent Cop	Takeshi Kitano, 1989
674	Homicide	David Mamet, 1991
676	Johnny Suede	Tom DiCillo, 1991
680	Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky	Lam Ngai Kai, 1991
683	The People Under the Stairs	Wes Craven, 1991
695	Police Story 3: Super Cop	Stanley Tong, 1992
698	Romper Stomper	Geoffrey Wright, 1992
702	A Man in Uniform	David Wellington, 1993
703	Bad Boy Bubby	Rolf de Heer, 1993
705	Cronos	Guillermo del Toro, 1993
710	Raining Stones	Ken Loach, 1993
712	Suture	Scott McGehee, David Siegel, 1993
713	The Legend II	Corey Yuen, 1993
720	Fist of Legend	Gordon Chan, 1994
728	The Legend of Drunken Master	Jackie Chan, Chia-Liang Liu, 1994
735	The Doom Generation	Gregg Araki, 1995
750	Small Faces	Gillies MacKinnon, 1996
765	Retroactive	Louis Morneau, 1997
774	Love Is the Devil	John Maybury, 1998
781	The General	John Boorman, 1998
784	A Room for Romeo Brass	Shane Meadows, 1999
785	American Movie	Chris Smith, 1999
786	Audition	Takashi Miike, 1999
800	Wild Zero	Tetsuro Takeuchi, 1999
804	Chuck & Buck	Miguel Arteta, 2000
812	The Low Down	Jamie Thraves, 2000
819	Shaolin Soccer	Stephen Chow, 2001
846	Windy City Heat	Bobcat Goldthwait, 2003
849	Born to Fight	Panna Rittikrai, 2004
851	Dead Man's Shoes	Shane Meadows, 2004
855	Man on Fire	Tony Scott, 2004
863	Brick	Rian Johnson, 2005
865	Domino	Tony Scott, 2005
867	Kiss Kiss Bang Bang	Shane Black, 2005
876	The Foot Fist Way	Jody Hill, 2006
908	Le Donk & Scorz-ayz-ee	Shane Meadows, 2009
911	World's Greatest Dad	Bobcat Goldthwait, 2009
912	13 Assassins	Takashi Miike, 2010
913	Animal Kingdom	David Michod, 2010
916	Point Blank	Fred Cavayé, 2010
920	The Town	Ben Affleck, 2010
921	The Trip	Michael Winterbottom, 2010
922	Bernie	Richard Linklater, 2011
924	Michael	Markus Schleinzer, 2011
930	Anna Karenina	Joe Wright, 2012
943	The Hunt	Thomas Vinterberg, 2012
944	The Imposter	Bart Layton, 2012
948	Cheap Thrills	E.L. Katz, 2013
982	Cop Car	Jon Watts, 2015