diff --git a/shell/last.sh b/shell/last.sh
index 6b47c28..a58ea32 100755
--- a/shell/last.sh
+++ b/shell/last.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 # in plain terms:
 #   [leading numbers with consistent width].[optional string descriptor and . separator][md|txt]
 
-UMALLFILES=`ls | egrep '^[[:digit:]].*\.(md|txt)'`
+UMALLFILES=`ls | grep -E '^[[:digit:]].*\.(md|txt)'`
 LASTSTATUS=$?
 
 # NOTE: if we don't stop and signal here, tail will exit 0
diff --git a/shell/tag.sh b/shell/tag.sh
index 8ab3845..d6c8687 100755
--- a/shell/tag.sh
+++ b/shell/tag.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 # just list the files so we can pipe it.
-grep -l "\+ $@" *md
+grep -lE "\+ $@" *md