Archive for the ‘Language’ Category
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
I’ve never been much of a Bob Dole fan and he did nothing to boost his standing with me by making the money grab after the ‘96 election pimping for Pfizer. But the erectile-challenged octogenarian rose to the occasion yesterday with his e-mail to former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan:
There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues. No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits and, spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique.
Bob Dole doesn’t mince words. Just in case there was anything left inside of McClellan, Dole returns with more:
In my nearly 36 years of public service I’ve known of a few like you. No doubt you will ‘clean up’ as the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm. When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, ‘Biting The Hand That Fed Me.’ Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years.
What a sardonic missive! I am a direct person, but pale in comparison to Dole’s gutting.
Who says politics isn’t exciting?
Posted in Language, Politics | No Comments »
Monday, May 5th, 2008
As I plan my lessons, I came across something that gave me pause.
The reading series we use is Harcourt Trophies. In the teacher’s manual on page 527 I read the following modeling I am encouraged to offer my students:
To make sure I focus on important information, I ask myself: What families is the author writing about?
Huh? What families is? Forgive me, but I am going to use my discretion and eschew this line of discussion with my students. I strive to have them speak proper English.
My goodness, what an egregious error!
Posted in Education, Language | No Comments »
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
My folks sent me away to a fancy prep school. I think I struggled acclimating to an environment where the guy who lived next door to me flew back to school in the family’s LearJet, others whose parents were big wigs in business and government, and everyone seemed to come from a privileged background.
I learned a lot at that school, despite my adolescent insecurities. I am pretty certain that one of the things I learned was that pronouns are to agree with their antecedents. If not there, then I learned it in the “lesser” schools I attended prior to going to St. Andrew’s. I know I currently teach the skill in a public school fourth grade.
That is why I am surprised to have read the following just now:
PLEASE LIST THE NAME OF YOUR GUEST/SPOUSE WHO WILL BE ATTENDING REUNION SO WE CAN PROVIDE THEM WITH NAMETAGS.
THEM refers to the antecedent GUEST/SPOUSE. GUEST/SPOUSE is singular, THEM is plural. Forget the all caps and forget that English does not have a gender-neutral possessive pronoun to use for words such as guest and spouse. His is the traditional possessive pronoun to use in this case. I know, some folks state that does not work either. Fine. What we do have is a plural possessive pronoun whose antecedent is a singular noun. That is incorrect. At minimum, the sentence needs to be re-worded so not to end in a situation where a plural possessive pronoun can be contemplated to be proper for a singular noun.
So much for that subsidized $38,000 tuition.
Posted in Education, Language | No Comments »
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
What makes something official?
I have Fox & Friends on. They tout themselves as the Official Morning Show of the 2008 Campaign or something similar. Um, yeah. Whatever. Where did they go to get that designation?
Groundspeak claims Geocaching.com is The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site.
I know the NFL sells official designations. For a fee, one can be the Official Hemorrhoid of the Big Game, or something like that. Major League Baseball and the Olympics do it too.
Official in those cases at least represent something (paying a fee for recognition). What does it mean when Fox News uses it like it has? Isn’t it a hollow claim? And if so, why make it?
It would seem that businesses and groups that use the official tag are doing so to pump themselves up. In other words to be more than it would be to not be official.
Groundspeak is such a case. For years it claims it is merely a listing service for geocaches. Sure, it sets the rules for listing caches on its site, but it denies it is ruling the game.
The Merriam-Webster definition of official is:
one who administers the rules of a game or sport especially as a referee or umpire
That doesn’t sound like merely a listing service.
I just find it interesting when groups attempt to hoodwink customers. I think I’ll try that out. eCache is now the:
- Official Blog of Truth, Justice, and the American Way
- Official Blog of Righteousness
- Official Blog of Buick
- South Jersey’s Official Blog
Oh, I’ll come up with something . . . official.
Posted in Language | No Comments »
Monday, April 7th, 2008
One of the complaints about bloggers is that what we published is not edited by another prior to publishing. Newspapermen criticize bloggers then as being less than an authority.
I think editing is a wonderful thing. For this blog though, editing is left to me and only me. Folks sometimes will let me know about mistakes. I correct them when they do. I sometimes reread older pieces (I like to reread posts from previous years) and correct spelling and grammar mistakes when I catch them.
But I am fully aware there are plenty of mistakes here. There is no editing by another. Newspapermen don’t think much of that.
Of course, newspapermen sometimes get it wrong too. Do we throw the baby out with the bath water when they do?
The above error has since been corrected. If we played it their way, we could discredit everything the paper ever has to say.
Yes, that seems rather pointless, doesn’t it?
Posted in Language, Media | 1 Comment »
