10at10 Club
Main Discussion Area => Stream of Consciousness => Topic started by: urth on January 18, 2007, 05:10:27 PM
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Since we have two copy editors in our midst and several other grammar geeks, I thought this thread was warranted.
From the front page of SFGate, in the blurb for their lead (about ramen noodles):
Jeff Yang pays tribute to this food which serves billions of people every year in the wake of its inventor Momofuku Ando's death.
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Since we have two copy editors in our midst and several other grammar geeks, I thought this thread was warranted.
From the front page of SFGate, in the blurb for their lead (about ramen noodles):
Jeff Yang pays tribute to this food which serves billions of people every year in the wake of its inventor Momofuku Ando's death.
good thing he only died once!
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I'm still driven crazy when I get email or anything in writing from an adult who misuses hear/here, there/they're/their. Happens more frequesntly than it should. It really lowers my estimation of the intelligence of the writer.
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I didn't know where else to put this, but it is language-related, so...
Is "gi-normous" now officially a real word? I've heard it used in 3 different commercials lately, and just now an astronomer, no less, used it on "Countdown" (Keith Olbermann was asking him about that big supernova that's in the news).
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I didn't know where else to put this, but it is language-related, so...
Is "gi-normous" now officially a real word? I've heard it used in 3 different commercials lately, and just now an astronomer, no less, used it on "Countdown" (Keith Olbermann was asking him about that big supernova that's in the news).
Sad to say, but I think it is. I found it listed on the Oxford dictionary site.
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I didn't know where else to put this, but it is language-related, so...
Is "gi-normous" now officially a real word? I've heard it used in 3 different commercials lately, and just now an astronomer, no less, used it on "Countdown" (Keith Olbermann was asking him about that big supernova that's in the news).
Sad to say, but I think it is. I found it listed on the Oxford dictionary site.
yup, it's official:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/10/national/a114035D37.DTL&tsp=1
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I didn't know where else to put this, but it is language-related, so...
Is "gi-normous" now officially a real word? I've heard it used in 3 different commercials lately, and just now an astronomer, no less, used it on "Countdown" (Keith Olbermann was asking him about that big supernova that's in the news).
Sad to say, but I think it is. I found it listed on the Oxford dictionary site.
yup, it's official:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/10/national/a114035D37.DTL&tsp=1
Well, language is supposed to be fluid. Even when it's dumb.
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So I'm reading this article about the Golf channel broadcaster who thought it would be funny to suggest lynching Tiger Woods:
http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/7651694?MSNHPHCP?gt1=10838
This line in the article caught my eye:
"The Golf Channel said it received a limited number of complaints regarding the comment."
Well, obviously it was a limited number, because the only other choices are none and infinite. The first is possible, the second not. For that matter, how can the Golf Channel "say" anything? A Golf Channel spokesman might.
Anyway, seems like shoddy writing by Fox sports, which shouldn't come as too big a surprise. I was wondering what our resident copy-editors might think...
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BTW, you copyeditor types might be interested in this season's "The Wire" on HBO. In this the fifth and final season, they are focusing on the media and the decline of the daily newspaper. In the season premier we learned that you can evacuate a building, but you can't evacuate people. Well, you can, but it's messy...
Really, anyone not yet on "The Wire" bandwagon, rent the DVDs from season one on, catch up, and climb aboard. Truly great TV.
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BTW, you copyeditor types might be interested in this season's "The Wire" on HBO. In this the fifth and final season, they are focusing on the media and the decline of the daily newspaper. In the season premier we learned that you can evacuate a building, but you can't evacuate people. Well, you can, but it's messy...
Really, anyone not yet on "The Wire" bandwagon, rent the DVDs from season one on, catch up, and climb aboard. Truly great TV.
Big article on it in the latest Newsweek, which I read last night. Will definitely be in my Netflix queue soon.
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So I'm reading this article about the Golf channel broadcaster who thought it would be funny to suggest lynching Tiger Woods:
http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/7651694?MSNHPHCP?gt1=10838
This line in the article caught my eye:
"The Golf Channel said it received a limited number of complaints regarding the comment."
Well, obviously it was a limited number, because the only other choices are none and infinite. The first is possible, the second not. For that matter, how can the Golf Channel "say" anything? A Golf Channel spokesman might.
Anyway, seems like shoddy writing by Fox sports, which shouldn't come as too big a surprise. I was wondering what our resident copy-editors might think...
We would have fixed both of those at Time. :) And the others at work are far fussier about language and grammar than I am.
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Am I the only one who has noticed an ongoing trend in the media to 'regularize' irregular English verbs? The first one I noticed, and which now seems to be accepted as the new standard is the elimination of 'dove' as the past tense of 'dive'. Myself, I always dove right in, but now it seems everyone dived right in. There are others that I've noticed, but check out this latest from the write-up of the Stanford-Marquette 2nd round NCAA game (if you missed it, whoosh...what a nail biter...the Stanford coach Trent Johnson got ejected after consecutive T's late in the first half, but the Cardinal won anyway on a very difficult leaner by their 7-ft center with 1.3 secs left in overtime).
Two minutes later Stanford trailed, 36-25. Johnson was watching the whole thing on a locker room TV, worried that he'd just cost his team its NCAA tournament. But Stanford grinded its way back into the game.
Jeez, what next? 'finded'?
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Am I the only one who has noticed an ongoing trend in the media to 'regularize' irregular English verbs? The first one I noticed, and which now seems to be accepted as the new standard is the elimination of 'dove' as the past tense of 'dive'. Myself, I always dove right in, but now it seems everyone dived right in. There are others that I've noticed, but check out this latest from the write-up of the Stanford-Marquette 2nd round NCAA game (if you missed it, whoosh...what a nail biter...the Stanford coach Trent Johnson got ejected after consecutive T's late in the first half, but the Cardinal won anyway on a very difficult leaner by their 7-ft center with 1.3 secs left in overtime).
Two minutes later Stanford trailed, 36-25. Johnson was watching the whole thing on a locker room TV, worried that he'd just cost his team its NCAA tournament. But Stanford grinded its way back into the game.
Jeez, what next? 'finded'?
It is truly the dumbing-down of our culture. The jockheads (or more correctly the male 12-25 target demo) who watch ESPN think conjugating irregular verbs is, like, "totally gay". Seriously. Ever see Idiocracy?
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it's time again for "ask the NY Times copy editor":
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/business/media/24asktheeditors.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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When did "outlier" become a word, much less a popular one? I'd never heard it before coming to work at Kaiser a year ago (it's quite popular here) and now I see it everywhere.
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When did "outlier" become a word, much less a popular one? I'd never heard it before coming to work at Kaiser a year ago (it's quite popular here) and now I see it everywhere.
Well, you're ahead of the curve on this one. I can't recall having run across it, and I'm even having trouble imagining how it would be used--a noun for "one who outlies"?
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When did "outlier" become a word, much less a popular one? I'd never heard it before coming to work at Kaiser a year ago (it's quite popular here) and now I see it everywhere.
it's been a standard term in statistical analysis for a very long time, but only recently seems to have entered the vernacular canon.
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When did "outlier" become a word, much less a popular one? I'd never heard it before coming to work at Kaiser a year ago (it's quite popular here) and now I see it everywhere.
Well, you're ahead of the curve on this one. I can't recall having run across it, and I'm even having trouble imagining how it would be used--a noun for "one who outlies"?
No it's used to refer to a data point that lies distinctly outside the nice curve or line produced by all the rest of your data points.
In everyday terms, this is why talking about average instead of median is often useless. For example, if Larry Ellison built a $25 million dollar house on your block, then the average home price on your block would about double, but this hypothetical home is such an outlier, that it doesn't really tell you anything about the value of the other homes on your block.
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When did "outlier" become a word, much less a popular one? I'd never heard it before coming to work at Kaiser a year ago (it's quite popular here) and now I see it everywhere.
Well, you're ahead of the curve on this one. I can't recall having run across it, and I'm even having trouble imagining how it would be used--a noun for "one who outlies"?
an excellent explanation. I saw the word in a NY Times story today about the Democrats recently elected in staunchly GOP districts, and how they're way more conservative than most Dems.
No it's used to refer to a data point that lies distinctly outside the nice curve or line produced by all the rest of your data points.
In everyday terms, this is why talking about average instead of median is often useless. For example, if Larry Ellison built a $25 million dollar house on your block, then the average home price on your block would about double, but this hypothetical home is such an outlier, that it doesn't really tell you anything about the value of the other homes on your block.
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When did "outlier" become a word, much less a popular one? I'd never heard it before coming to work at Kaiser a year ago (it's quite popular here) and now I see it everywhere.
Well, you're ahead of the curve on this one. I can't recall having run across it, and I'm even having trouble imagining how it would be used--a noun for "one who outlies"?
No it's used to refer to a data point that lies distinctly outside the nice curve or line produced by all the rest of your data points.
In everyday terms, this is why talking about average instead of median is often useless. For example, if Larry Ellison built a $25 million dollar house on your block, then the average home price on your block would about double, but this hypothetical home is such an outlier, that it doesn't really tell you anything about the value of the other homes on your block.
an excellent explanation. I saw the word in a NY Times story today about the Democrats recently elected in staunchly GOP districts, and how they're way more conservative than most Dems.
The term "outlier" is about to hit the mainstream even harder. At the conference I attended in SD last week, Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink) was the keynote speaker. His talk was most interesting, and he mentioned that some of it was from his upcoming book to be titled...you guessed it...Outliers. Since this was a training conference he focused his remarks on development, and his main point was that some people develop right away (Picassos) and some over a long time (Cezannes). And as an illustration he gave a 5 minute recitation on the history of Fleetwood Mac that was amazingly detailed and humorous, including all personnel changes and why, and how their greatest success, Rumours, was their 16th(!) LP. He then contrasted with the Eagles Hotel California, also widely acknowledged as one of the top albums of all time, and how the Eagles had big hits starting from their first album, put out a greatest hits album after only 4 years, and produced their masterpiece in their 5th year of existence.
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When did "outlier" become a word, much less a popular one? I'd never heard it before coming to work at Kaiser a year ago (it's quite popular here) and now I see it everywhere.
Well, you're ahead of the curve on this one. I can't recall having run across it, and I'm even having trouble imagining how it would be used--a noun for "one who outlies"?
No it's used to refer to a data point that lies distinctly outside the nice curve or line produced by all the rest of your data points.
In everyday terms, this is why talking about average instead of median is often useless. For example, if Larry Ellison built a $25 million dollar house on your block, then the average home price on your block would about double, but this hypothetical home is such an outlier, that it doesn't really tell you anything about the value of the other homes on your block.
an excellent explanation. I saw the word in a NY Times story today about the Democrats recently elected in staunchly GOP districts, and how they're way more conservative than most Dems.
The term "outlier" is about to hit the mainstream even harder. At the conference I attended in SD last week, Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink) was the keynote speaker. His talk was most interesting, and he mentioned that some of it was from his upcoming book to be titled...you guessed it...Outliers. Since this was a training conference he focused his remarks on development, and his main point was that some people develop right away (Picassos) and some over a long time (Cezannes). And as an illustration he gave a 5 minute recitation on the history of Fleetwood Mac that was amazingly detailed and humorous, including all personnel changes and why, and how their greatest success, Rumours, was their 16th(!) LP. He then contrasted with the Eagles Hotel California, also widely acknowledged as one of the top albums of all time, and how the Eagles had big hits starting from their first album, put out a greatest hits album after only 4 years, and produced their masterpiece in their 5th year of existence.
I notice how the term 'masterpiece' is used for the Eagles, whereas the term 'greatest success' is used for Fleetwood Mac. I would posit that FM's 3rd LP "Then Play On" was a masterpiece indeed, more so than "Hotel California." But I don't expect others to concur!
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I notice how the term 'masterpiece' is used for the Eagles, whereas the term 'greatest success' is used for Fleetwood Mac.
That's just me trying not to sound redundant in my word choices, not a quote of Gladwell making a distinction. But I agree that Then Play On is a great record & these days I'd certainly rather listen to it than to Hotel California.
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I notice how the term 'masterpiece' is used for the Eagles, whereas the term 'greatest success' is used for Fleetwood Mac.
That's just me trying not to sound redundant in my word choices, not a quote of Gladwell making a distinction. But I agree that Then Play On is a great record & these days I'd certainly rather listen to it than to Hotel California.
sorry to quibble. You just kind of wandered into my wheelhouse with that comparison! ;D
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For Word Nerds:
http://lifehacker.com/395368/best-online-language-tools-for-word-nerds (http://lifehacker.com/395368/best-online-language-tools-for-word-nerds)
There are just as many great references in the comments as in the main article.
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More perils in the world of copyediting than you ever knew:
http://gawker.com/5035522/masturbation-at-new-york-times-alleged-by-super+friendly-copy-editor
(Be sure to read the comments, some of which are L-O-L hilarious.)
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More perils in the world of copyediting than you ever knew:
http://gawker.com/5035522/masturbation-at-new-york-times-alleged-by-super+friendly-copy-editor
(Be sure to read the comments, some of which are L-O-L hilarious.)
"Sadly, Brokeback Cubicle will never be a bestseller."
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Yesterday's Merc had the following headline on a 2-inch column:
MGM denies reports that movie studio not for sale
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios says it is "not for sale" following a report in Business-Week...
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Yesterday's Merc had the following headline on a 2-inch column:
MGM denies reports that movie studio not for sale
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios says it is "not for sale" following a report in Business-Week...
uh oh, i don't think I'm seeing what's up w this one. I know headlines take shortcuts, but what's missing here? the word "is?"
I wouldl've written it in Variety speak: MGM: 'We're not for sale!' (or is that even more wronger?)
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Yesterday's Merc had the following headline on a 2-inch column:
MGM denies reports that movie studio not for sale
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios says it is "not for sale" following a report in Business-Week...
uh oh, i don't think I'm seeing what's up w this one. I know headlines take shortcuts, but what's missing here? the word "is?"
I wouldl've written it in Variety speak: MGM: 'We're not for sale!' (or is that even more wronger?)
I think the issue here is that the headline and the first line of the story are at odds with each other. In the headline, they deny they are not for sale, but in the first line they claim they are not for sale.
Tricksy double negatives.
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Yesterday's Merc had the following headline on a 2-inch column:
MGM denies reports that movie studio not for sale
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios says it is "not for sale" following a report in Business-Week...
uh oh, i don't think I'm seeing what's up w this one. I know headlines take shortcuts, but what's missing here? the word "is?"
I wouldl've written it in Variety speak: MGM: 'We're not for sale!' (or is that even more wronger?)
I think the issue here is that the headline and the first line of the story are at odds with each other. In the headline, they deny they are not for sale, but in the first line they claim they are not for sale.
Tricksy double negatives.
ah yeah...thanks!
heh, that would be it. they should've thrown a third negative in there to bring back around to the positive side of things...
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"Meh" makes into the dictionary!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081117/ts_alt_afp/britainlanguagedictionaryoffbeat;_ylt=AgtNoHLk6sQ6kEBAjRXZyYus0NUE
no word yet on "feh", however...
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Have any of you crazy copy editors checked out gooseGrade?
http://www.goosegrade.com/
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another "Literally Misused" sighting/citing:
This kind of securitized lending accounted for more than half of the credit available to consumers and businesses here in the U.S. before the meltdown. Now it's literally fallen off a cliff, actually fell to within a hair's breadth of zero.
not only does he go over the edge by using literally incorrectly, he climbs back up and jumps off again by using "actually" to reinforce the whole mess.
Not for the grammatically squeamish!
Read it if you dare! (http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/09/pm_securitization_q/)
Listen at your own risk! (http://marketplace.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=marketplace/pm/2009/02/09/marketplace_cast1_20090209_64&starttime=00:10:04.0&endtime=00:14:21.0) (at about 10:30-10:40 into the file)
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another "Literally Misused" sighting/citing:
This kind of securitized lending accounted for more than half of the credit available to consumers and businesses here in the U.S. before the meltdown. Now it's literally fallen off a cliff, actually fell to within a hair's breadth of zero.
not only does he go over the edge by using literally incorrectly, he climbs back up and jumps off again by using "actually" to reinforce the whole mess.
Not for the grammatically squeamish!
Read it if you dare! (http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/09/pm_securitization_q/)
Listen at your own risk! (http://marketplace.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=marketplace/pm/2009/02/09/marketplace_cast1_20090209_64&starttime=00:10:04.0&endtime=00:14:21.0) (at about 10:30-10:40 into the file)
Which led me to find this: http://www.robertfulford.com/literally.html
and this: http://literally.barelyfitz.com/
What fun!
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another "Literally Misused" sighting/citing:
This kind of securitized lending accounted for more than half of the credit available to consumers and businesses here in the U.S. before the meltdown. Now it's literally fallen off a cliff, actually fell to within a hair's breadth of zero.
not only does he go over the edge by using literally incorrectly, he climbs back up and jumps off again by using "actually" to reinforce the whole mess.
Not for the grammatically squeamish!
Read it if you dare! (http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/09/pm_securitization_q/)
Listen at your own risk! (http://marketplace.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=marketplace/pm/2009/02/09/marketplace_cast1_20090209_64&starttime=00:10:04.0&endtime=00:14:21.0) (at about 10:30-10:40 into the file)
Which led me to find this: http://www.robertfulford.com/literally.html
and this: http://literally.barelyfitz.com/
What fun!
Picky grammarians of the world, rebel!!
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The Copy Editor's Lament (http://christopherave.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/copy-editors-lament-the-layoff-song/)
You guys will love this song.
minor caveat, it took a really long time to buffer when I listened to it.
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Picky grammarians ...
redundant, no? :)
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Not sure where else to put this, but I was just forwarded an email from our Taiwan HQ alerting us to the precautions we should be taking due to concerns about the Swan Flu.
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Not sure where else to put this, but I was just forwarded an email from our Taiwan HQ alerting us to the precautions we should be taking due to concerns about the Swan Flu.
guess that UglyDuckling Flu finally grew up...
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currently sitting in on our wkly sales meeting, but no one is looking over my shoulder.
My buddy Michael on the East Coast is talking about a contact he has at HP whose name is Trim Sheppard...
...and all I can think of is Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs "I need some trim, Jack!"
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currently sitting in on our wkly sales meeting, but no one is looking over my shoulder.
My buddy Michael on the East Coast is talking about a contact he has at HP whose name is Trim Sheppard...
...and all I can think of is Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs "I need some trim, Jack!"
Not sure if it was before or after 48 Hours, but I distinctly recall when a reference to getting one's tree trimmed meant you were getting some action.
ETA:
Which for some reason put me in mind of the early Blondie tune Look Good In Blue, with the tagline "I could give you some head...and shoulders to line on." Anyone heard that one lately?
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Had a Letterman moment today: a taqueria in the Mission has large posters in the window touting its various burritos -- not hand-lettered signs, these are professional jobs -- and one for their veggie burrito says it's "maked with fresh vegetables". Oops.
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Had a Letterman moment today: a taqueria in the Mission has large posters in the window touting it's various burritos -- not hand-lettered signs, these are professional jobs -- and one for their veggie burrito says it's "maked with fresh vegetables". Oops.
A few years ago the doughnut shop at 9th and Judah had a banner posted offering 2-for-1 doughnuts (or some sort of special offer) from Feb 1 through Feb 30.
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
The Nats aren't the only ones. Couple of years back the Giants' had a Moises Alou bobble that had the team name misspelled on his jersey: Ginats. I'll try to find a pic of it.
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
uh, my browser says: "Comments have been removed from this entry."
what was the gist?
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
uh, my browser says: "Comments have been removed from this entry."
what was the gist?
no idea why they removed the comments.
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
uh, my browser says: "Comments have been removed from this entry."
what was the gist?
no idea why they removed the comments.
I still see them:
cuppingmaster
5/27/2009 11:01:26 AM
So was this whole thing a spoof?
dcsportsbog.com? 300 pennies?
I hope.
palmer2johnsont
5/26/2009 5:11:05 PM
i admit: i'm a nats fan. you giants and A's fans here in the Bay Area, you guys can take pride in the fact that the Nationals are the biggest joke in baseball.
sanfrandodgerfa
5/26/2009 2:56:24 PM
Ratto-this is an amazing indictment of editorial competence...considering the lack of same at the Chron and 'Gate...
hellyeahman
5/26/2009 2:13:08 PM
....um, hobbes2d, did you read the whole sentence? the "no, those aren't typographical errors" part?
Ratto, if you haven't done it yet, you should send this to failblog dot org. I'm amazed at the ineptitude. Signed, a hardcore A's fan.
hobbes2d
5/26/2009 1:52:34 PM
Apparently Ray and whoever edits this page didn't go to school either. Natinals? HA! No wonder you're going out of business.
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
uh, my browser says: "Comments have been removed from this entry."
what was the gist?
no idea why they removed the comments.
I still see them
they're really classic examples of how stupid many of the SFGate commenters are; they're calling Ratto stupid for misspelling "Natinals" when the misspelling is the whole point of the post. Sheesh.
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
uh, my browser says: "Comments have been removed from this entry."
what was the gist?
no idea why they removed the comments.
I still see them
they're really classic examples of how stupid many of the SFGate commenters are; they're calling Ratto stupid for misspelling "Natinals" when the misspelling is the whole point of the post. Sheesh.
I think you'll find that any site that does not pre-moderate comments will reveal many examples of meanness and stupidity from the commenters. I think that's just the way people "are."
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they're really classic examples of how stupid many of the SFGate commenters are; they're calling Ratto stupid for misspelling "Natinals" when the misspelling is the whole point of the post. Sheesh.
I think you'll find that any site that does not pre-moderate comments will reveal many examples of meanness and stupidity from the commenters. I think that's just the way people "are."
Indeed. The anonymity of the Internet brings out all our worst impulses.
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
uh, my browser says: "Comments have been removed from this entry."
what was the gist?
dangit, turns out we had server problems at SFGate last night and this AM, which is why some folks cold not access comments, login, etc.
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bad, bad bobbleheads...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ratto/detail?blogid=64&entry_id=40655
uh, my browser says: "Comments have been removed from this entry."
what was the gist?
dangit, turns out we had server problems at SFGate last night and this AM, which is why some folks cold not access comments, login, etc.
thanks, now I see what was up.
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Spelling errors like that really kill me. I know it happens but should NOT when you're printing mass merchandise items. Errors like that should result in shame and heads rolling out the door to the unemployment line. Yeah, I know that's a harsh attitude but dammit Janet!
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Not quite sure where else to put this, but the wordsmiths here should get a kick out of it:
The New York Times 50 Most-Looked-Up Words (http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/06/ny-times-mines-its-data-to-identify-words-that-readers-find-abstruse/)
The actual memo, at the end of the article, is very interesting.
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Not quite sure where else to put this, but the wordsmiths here should get a kick out of it:
The New York Times 50 Most-Looked-Up Words (http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/06/ny-times-mines-its-data-to-identify-words-that-readers-find-abstruse/)
The actual memo, at the end of the article, is very interesting.
"Swine" was number 31? You really gotta dumb it down if people don't know what swine are. Though, come to think on it, it is synonymous with "politician(s)", so there could be confusion.
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Not quite sure where else to put this, but the wordsmiths here should get a kick out of it:
The New York Times 50 Most-Looked-Up Words (http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/06/ny-times-mines-its-data-to-identify-words-that-readers-find-abstruse/)
The actual memo, at the end of the article, is very interesting.
"Swine" was number 31? You really gotta dumb it down if people don't know what swine are. Though, come to think on it, it is synonymous with "politician(s)", so there could be confusion.
That's why a listing based on raw number of look-up scan be deceiving. With 2 1/2 times the number of appearances as the next most common word (which not coincidentally was 'pandemic'), it had by far the lowest rate of lookup.
So how many did you not know? There's only two that I had no clue on: bildungsroman & bonobo. But if you challenged me to give a precise definition for the word, there's probably another 1/3 of the list that I'd have difficulty with even though I have vague to good idea of what they mean.
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http://bit.ly/qWVVY
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http://bit.ly/qWVVY
This is what happens when we "elitists" are ridiculed and the Sarah Palins of the nation run the show.
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http://bit.ly/qWVVY
This is what happens when we "elitists" are ridiculed and the Sarah Palins of the nation run the show.
I liked the one comment on the article:
Dyslexics of the world UNTIE!
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http://bit.ly/qWVVY
This is what happens when we "elitists" are ridiculed and the Sarah Palins of the nation run the show.
I liked the one comment on the article:
Dyslexics of the world UNTIE!
Dyslexics Are Teople Poo!
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http://bit.ly/qWVVY
This is what happens when we "elitists" are ridiculed and the Sarah Palins of the nation run the show.
I liked the one comment on the article:
Dyslexics of the world UNTIE!
Dyslexics Are Teople Poo!
Technically, that's a Spoonerism. Totally different head. Totally.
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Copyedit humor from a post on another forum:
"My grandfather had his semi-colon removed, and now he has to punctuate into a rubber bag."
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Happy National Punctuation Day!
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/
And coincidentally, there's this post on SFGate, one of their outside blog things. It's atrociously written and in desperate need of copyediting/spellchecking -- read the comments.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inalameda/detail?entry_id=48263&tsp=1
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Happy National Punctuation Day!
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/
And coincidentally, there's this post on SFGate, one of their outside blog things. It's atrociously written and in desperate need of copyediting/spellchecking -- read the comments.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inalameda/detail?entry_id=48263&tsp=1
Thanks for posting this, Mike: we asked the blogger to fix his errors. Turns out he was using Voice Recognition Software for this entry. He should enunciate better; maybe he was eating breakfast at the time?
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Happy National Punctuation Day!
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/
And coincidentally, there's this post on SFGate, one of their outside blog things. It's atrociously written and in desperate need of copyediting/spellchecking -- read the comments.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inalameda/detail?entry_id=48263&tsp=1
Thanks for posting this, Mike: we asked the blogger to fix his errors.
glad to hear it -- many of the outside and "guest blogger" thingys on sfgate are pretty awful, grammar-and-spelling-wise.
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Happy National Punctuation Day!
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/
And coincidentally, there's this post on SFGate, one of their outside blog things. It's atrociously written and in desperate need of copyediting/spellchecking -- read the comments.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inalameda/detail?entry_id=48263&tsp=1
Thanks for posting this, Mike: we asked the blogger to fix his errors.
glad to hear it -- many of the outside and "guest blogger" thingys on sfgate are pretty awful, grammar-and-spelling-wise.
Yeah, you get what you pay for.
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Happy National Punctuation Day!
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/
And coincidentally, there's this post on SFGate, one of their outside blog things. It's atrociously written and in desperate need of copyediting/spellchecking -- read the comments.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inalameda/detail?entry_id=48263&tsp=1
Thanks for posting this, Mike: we asked the blogger to fix his errors.
glad to hear it -- many of the outside and "guest blogger" thingys on sfgate are pretty awful, grammar-and-spelling-wise.
Yeah, you get what you pay for.
We had similar issues at CNET with bloggers who were from the outside tech community, rather than on staff. No one was reading their stuff before it went live, and there were some pretty atrocious things that went up on the site.
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New Word of the Week: "metrotextual"
Apparently, metrotextuals are straight guys who text each other and sign their messages with x's and o's. Dude! Sweet!
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New Word of the Week: "metrotextual"
Apparently, metrotextuals are straight guys who text each other and sign their messages with x's and o's. Dude! Sweet!
Great, just what I need. ::)
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Can I just vent a sec:
One of my big grammar pet peeves is the improper use of "it's" when the correct usage is "its." I fear that the distinction between the two is becoming excessively blurred due to large percentage of people who don't know the diff. I am seeing "it's" (the contraction of "it is") used in place of "its" (the possessive case of "it") many many places that should know the diff. I see this as another symptom of the dumbing down of our society as a whole, and it kinda bugs me. Sometimes a lot.
And to be clear, I'm not just talking about FB posts and other casual communications. I'm talking about things like this article, last graf:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/california.stolen.vw/index.html
This is fucking CNN, for crying out loud. It is supposedly a major news agency. It, if anything, should have higher standards, and know and practice this relatively simple point of grammar.
[/rant]
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Can I just vent a sec:
One of my big grammar pet peeves is the improper use of "it's" when the correct usage is "its." I fear that the distinction between the two is becoming excessively blurred due to large percentage of people who don't know the diff. I am seeing "it's" (the contraction of "it is") used in place of "its" (the possessive case of "it") many many places that should know the diff. I see this as another symptom of the dumbing down of our society as a whole, and it kinda bugs me. Sometimes a lot.
And to be clear, I'm not just talking about FB posts and other casual communications. I'm talking about things like this article, last graf:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/california.stolen.vw/index.html
This is fucking CNN, for crying out loud. It is supposedly a major news agency. It, if anything, should have higher standards, and know and practice this relatively simple point of grammar.
[/rant]
Sadly, it's strongly likely that an editor merely perused that piece and no copy editor ever touched it. Much of what I copyedit at Time.com is after-the-fact cleaning up, and my colleagues and I don't get to every single story posted.
Which isn't to excuse that glaring error so much as to note that increasing numbers of such errors will be a wave of the future as we continue to "streamline" online pubilshing procedures.
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Can I just vent a sec:
One of my big grammar pet peeves is the improper use of "it's" when the correct usage is "its." I fear that the distinction between the two is becoming excessively blurred due to large percentage of people who don't know the diff. I am seeing "it's" (the contraction of "it is") used in place of "its" (the possessive case of "it") many many places that should know the diff. I see this as another symptom of the dumbing down of our society as a whole, and it kinda bugs me. Sometimes a lot.
And to be clear, I'm not just talking about FB posts and other casual communications. I'm talking about things like this article, last graf:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/california.stolen.vw/index.html
This is fucking CNN, for crying out loud. It is supposedly a major news agency. It, if anything, should have higher standards, and know and practice this relatively simple point of grammar.
[/rant]
Sadly, it's strongly likely that an editor merely perused that piece and no copy editor ever touched it. Much of what I copyedit at Time.com is after-the-fact cleaning up, and my colleagues and I don't get to every single story posted.
Which isn't to excuse that glaring error so much as to note that increasing numbers of such errors will be a wave of the future as we continue to "streamline" online pubilshing procedures.
I make that mistake, too, even though I def know the diff. I tend to use the apostrophe every single time, writing "it's" when I mean "its" -- it's never the opposite mistake. Everyone "knows" the difference, but that possessive-without-an apostrophe throws things off.
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I make that mistake, too, even though I def know the diff. I tend to use the apostrophe every single time, writing "it's" when I mean "its" -- it's never the opposite mistake. Everyone "knows" the difference, but that possessive-without-an apostrophe throws things off.
That's by far the more common occurrence. And you've nailed the reason for it. People expect to have to include the apostrophe for any possessive.
Apologies for the rant, btw. Just really had to get that off my chest. I feel *much* better now. :)
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this could go on the Sports Thread, but I think it is better here.
The confounding world of athlete tattoos (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4644126&sportCat=nba)
highlight: "Quarless may be God's gift to football, but not to punctuation. It lacks an apostrophe, to say nothing of humility."
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this could go on the Sports Thread, but I think it is better here.
The confounding world of athlete tattoos (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4644126&sportCat=nba)
highlight: "Quarless may be God's gift to football, but not to punctuation. It lacks an apostrophe, to say nothing of humility."
excellent! thanks!
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So on the same day that I got a nicely comprehensive email from Monster.com warning about (& quite thoroughly detailing) the types of internet scams aimed at job seekers, my spam filter also caught this one, which purported to be a delivery failure notice for an email I ostensibly sent to these people. It included attachments for both the 'message' I sent & the 'order' I failed to place - and no, I didn't open them.
But here's the thing why I'm posting this here. The text of the scam email starts off with perfectly good tech-speak:
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
Delivery to the following recipients failed.
but then in a window below it previews the message:
Forwarded Message: Order Information (Bull. #728
Order Information (Bull. #728
Hello, member!
We are glad to inform you, that constantly we work above
improvement of our site and we try to place various entertaining
and beautiful materials.
Now we have made the new design, new fast system of access to a content.
Our sites is updated daily by interesting, exclusive materials.
As most of you know, I have taught English to non-native speakers from just about everywhere, and the badness of this bit seems to be pretty obviously (to me anyway) of a Slavic language origin. Almost as priceless as English As She Is Spoke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke). And who in the world uses the leading parenthesis, then forgets – TWICE – to close it?
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I would say at least 2/3 of the spam I get is written in bad ESL-speak. Russian, Chinese, whatever. Quite hilarious that anyone at the other end would think this stuff would fool anyone.
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This could almost as easily go in the Mondegreens forum, but check out this funny article from ESPN's Rick Reilly on the unintended hilarity to be found in sports programs' Clothes Cap Shunning (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4743743). Be sure to appreciate the final paragraph.
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This could almost as easily go in the Mondegreens forum, but check out this funny article from ESPN's Rick Reilly on the unintended hilarity to be found in sports programs' Clothes Cap Shunning (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4743743). Be sure to appreciate the final paragraph.
Great stuff. I've long been a fan of misspelled CAP SHUNS. I think I've mentioned before that whenever Mike Krukow says "grab some pine, meat!" the captions invariably say "GRAB SOME PIE AND MEAT". And when Edgardo Alfonso was a Giant, his name was usually Guard Dough Alfonse.
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Okay gang, we all need to take a demerit for this one...
I just noticed that the subheading on the In Memoriam, Happy Birthday forum has a spelling error. It has been there since the first post on Jan 25, 2005 (when Johnny Carson passed), and no one has fixed it until now. The Copy Edit 101 thread has been in existence since January of 2007, so for at least 3 full years we've been making fun of others while this was sitting there on the club's Main Discussion Area for all to see.
The irony is just killing me!
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Okay gang, we all need to take a demerit for this one...
I just noticed that the subheading on the In Memoriam, Happy Birthday forum has a spelling error. It has been there since the first post on Jan 25, 2005 (when Johnny Carson passed), and no one has fixed it until now. The Copy Edit 101 thread has been in existence since January of 2007, so for at least 3 full years we've been making fun of others while this was sitting there on the club's Main Discussion Area for all to see.
The irony is just killing me!
I sense controversy! Getting mixed results looking up profer / proffer. I think proferred works... Need real dictionary.
ETA: I am almost certain that I've never written either profer or proffer, ever, in my entire lifetime.
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Okay gang, we all need to take a demerit for this one...
I just noticed that the subheading on the In Memoriam, Happy Birthday forum has a spelling error. It has been there since the first post on Jan 25, 2005 (when Johnny Carson passed), and no one has fixed it until now. The Copy Edit 101 thread has been in existence since January of 2007, so for at least 3 full years we've been making fun of others while this was sitting there on the club's Main Discussion Area for all to see.
The irony is just killing me!
I sense controversy! Getting mixed results looking up profer / proffer. I think proferred works... Need real dictionary.
ETA: I am almost certain that I've never written either profer or proffer, ever, in my entire lifetime.
it's my error, if it is one. Looking up both spellings, it's a little confusing:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/proffer
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/profer
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it failed the spellcheck in Windows Word, and I have never seen it or used it with the single f.
but I'm not a typical person when it comes to vocabulary. The other day I confessed to having misunderstood something "because I conflated" one thing with another. My new co-worker (educated white guy) looked at me stunned and said, "I have NEVER heard anyone use that word in a sentence before."
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it failed the spellcheck in Windows Word, and I have never seen it or used it with the single f.
but I'm not a typical person when it comes to vocabulary. The other day I confessed to having misunderstood something "because I conflated" one thing with another. My new co-worker (educated white guy) looked at me stunned and said, "I have NEVER heard anyone use that word in a sentence before."
I had to explain what "canary in a coal mine" meant to my freshmen today.
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as is Death Cab for Cutie didn't get on my nerves enough, there's this lyric
Meet me on the equinox, meet me half way
When the sun is perched at its highest peak
In the middle of the day
ah yes, much better than one of those lower peaks...
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as is Death Cab for Cutie didn't get on my nerves enough, there's this lyric
Meet me on the equinox, meet me half way
When the sun is perched at its highest peak
In the middle of the day
ah yes, much better than one of those lower peaks...
not to mention the redundancy of the sun at its highest peakpoint being the very definition of the middle of the day.
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as is Death Cab for Cutie didn't get on my nerves enough, there's this lyric
Meet me on the equinox, meet me half way
When the sun is perched at its highest peak
In the middle of the day
ah yes, much better than one of those lower peaks...
not to mention the redundancy of the sun at its highest peakpoint being the very definition of the middle of the day.
I thought the middle of the day was 12:00 PM.
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Typo of the Week: a fancast.com story about the fall TV schedule refers to that big NFL championship game in February as the Super Bowel. Insert toilet humor here.
http://www.fancast.com/blogs/2010/tv-news/fall-tv-schedule-glees-on-the-move-idol-stays-put-plus-new-shows/?cmpid=FCST_hero
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Typo of the Week: a fancast.com story about the fall TV schedule refers to that big NFL championship game in February as the Super Bowel. Insert toilet humor here.
http://www.fancast.com/blogs/2010/tv-news/fall-tv-schedule-glees-on-the-move-idol-stays-put-plus-new-shows/?cmpid=FCST_hero
Looks right to me--what's the problem? :D
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I haven't actually seen this in print, but I hear people say it (even our beloved Greg Edwards of CGSS and Jazz-FM) and it makes me crazy: for the plural of "text" instead of "texts" people say "texes". Argh!
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An interesting commercial I saw last night while watching the NBA -- a MJ Hanes commercial advertising the "lay down collar" of their t-shirts. A guy starts complaining it should be "lie-down" collars, and another guy points out MJ made lay-ups, not lie-ups. Anyway, the point of the ad was questioning their own ad copy.
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An interesting commercial I saw last night while watching the NBA -- a MJ Hanes commercial advertising the "lay down collar" of their t-shirts. A guy starts complaining it should be "lie-down" collars, and another guy points out MJ made lay-ups, not lie-ups. Anyway, the point of the ad was questioning their own ad copy.
so, that Crapton song shoulda been "Lie Down Sally"? ;)
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An interesting commercial I saw last night while watching the NBA -- a MJ Hanes commercial advertising the "lay down collar" of their t-shirts. A guy starts complaining it should be "lie-down" collars, and another guy points out MJ made lay-ups, not lie-ups. Anyway, the point of the ad was questioning their own ad copy.
so, that Crapton song shoulda been "Lie Down Sally"? ;)
Yes, unless he's giving someone other than Sally a directive.
Similarly, "Would You Lay Me in a Field of Stone" is correct either way, depending on context.
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Dunno how much they pay (probably not much, if anything) but the SF Bay Times seriously needs a copy editor. In this weeks issue, in 2 separate headlines -- HEADLINES!! -- they spelled "Stonewall" as "Styonewall" and actually misspelled "queer" (as "qeer") ... in a gay paper. Jeezus H. Kee-ryst on a stick.
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Didn't know where to put this, but 'LNG just played the Capt & Tenille cover of "Shop Around" and it always grates that they changed
Try to get yourself a bargain, son
Don't be sold on the very first one
to
Try to get yourself a bargain girl
when they could've used used "hon" which would've made sense AND rhymed with "one".
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One for the "misspelled foreign CD/DVD covers" list -- this is up there with "Eric Crapton":
(http://hollywood-elsewhere.com//images/column/augusto/fistdates2.jpg)
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One for the "misspelled foreign CD/DVD covers" list -- this is up there with "Eric Crapton":
(http://hollywood-elsewhere.com//images/column/augusto/fistdates2.jpg)
That's genius. You sure it isn't the porno version? ;)
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One for the "misspelled foreign CD/DVD covers" list -- this is up there with "Eric Crapton":
That's genius. You sure it isn't the porno version? ;)
all I know is, Drew has a rather startled look on her face...
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One for the "misspelled foreign CD/DVD covers" list -- this is up there with "Eric Crapton":
That's genius. You sure it isn't the porno version? ;)
all I know is, Drew has a rather startled look on her face...
and while you can see both of Adam's hands, I wonder where Drew's right hand/fist is...?
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A former ABC co-worker and current FB-friend, writing on the NY radio message board, in a thread on grammar/punctuation:
"Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse."
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Of the nominees received, here are SFGate's finalists for 2010 Word of the Year:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/12/16/word16.DTL&tsp=1
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Grammar Police Decree 'Twenty Eleven', not 'Two Thousand Eleven'
Coming off of "two thousand nine," you might have said "two thousand ten." But you would be wrong, according to the National Association of Good Grammar (NAGG).
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/MN621BB41U.DTL
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Grammar Police Decree 'Twenty Eleven', not 'Two Thousand Eleven'
Coming off of "two thousand nine," you might have said "two thousand ten." But you would be wrong, according to the National Association of Good Grammar (NAGG).
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/MN621BB41U.DTL
dude, that article is so last year. ;)
I still say "two thousand ten," however. it will take a while before it sinks in.
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Grammar Police Decree 'Twenty Eleven', not 'Two Thousand Eleven'
Coming off of "two thousand nine," you might have said "two thousand ten." But you would be wrong, according to the National Association of Good Grammar (NAGG).
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/MN621BB41U.DTL
dude, that article is so last year. ;)
I still say "two thousand ten," however. it will take a while before it sinks in.
Perhaps in the year two thousand five hundred twenty five!
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According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books plans to release a version of "Huck Finn" that cuts the "n" word and replaces it with "slave." The slur "injun," referring to Native Americans, will also be replaced.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110104/en_yblog_newsroom/huck-finn-gets-some-changes (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110104/en_yblog_newsroom/huck-finn-gets-some-changes)
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According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books plans to release a version of "Huck Finn" that cuts the "n" word and replaces it with "slave." The slur "injun," referring to Native Americans, will also be replaced.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110104/en_yblog_newsroom/huck-finn-gets-some-changes (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110104/en_yblog_newsroom/huck-finn-gets-some-changes)
very sad.
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BTW, kids, SF-Ist are looking for an associate editor.
http://sfist.com/2011/01/06/help_wanted_looking_for_an_associat.php
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BTW, kids, SF-Ist are looking for an associate editor.
http://sfist.com/2011/01/06/help_wanted_looking_for_an_associat.php
Oh geez, 1997 me would be SO applying for this. If there were, um, blogs in 1997.
That said, if anyone hears of top-level copyediting opps in SF, I'm always all ears. My gig with TIME is gratifying in many ways, but in blunt terms: every year I'm in NYC is another year I'm not in SF. And I miss home sometimes.
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
(http://knowyourmeme.com/system/icons/2915/original/death_to_all_juice.jpg?1276390193)
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
(http://knowyourmeme.com/system/icons/2915/original/death_to_all_juice.jpg?1276390193)
Should it be "Death to Al Juice"?
because I know a guy, Al Juice, and although I wouldn't want to kill him, he's a dick.
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
(http://knowyourmeme.com/system/icons/2915/original/death_to_all_juice.jpg?1276390193)
Aww c'mon man, pineapple juice ain't that bad. >:( But yeah, orange, apple & grape juice can all die ;)
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
Aww c'mon man, pineapple juice ain't that bad. >:( But yeah, orange, apple & grape juice can all die ;)
what about Cran-Apple? would you kill that, too? and what if the juices are carbonated, like the Martinelli's apple juice? What about beverages which "contain(s) 10% juice?" How would this anti-juicist deal with them?
You see, it's a complex issue. I plea for moderation on all sides.
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
(http://knowyourmeme.com/system/icons/2915/original/death_to_all_juice.jpg?1276390193)
You'll also enjoy these misspelled protest signs:
http://www.11points.com/News-Politics/11_Gorgeously_Ironic_Misspellings_In_Protest_Signs
AND
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-misspelled-signs.htm
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
Aww c'mon man, pineapple juice ain't that bad. >:( But yeah, orange, apple & grape juice can all die ;)
what about Cran-Apple? would you kill that, too? and what if the juices are carbonated, like the Martinelli's apple juice? What about beverages which "contain(s) 10% juice?" How would this anti-juicist deal with them?
You see, it's a complex issue. I plea for moderation on all sides.
I likes me some Martinelli's! Prune juice, however...
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
Aww c'mon man, pineapple juice ain't that bad. >:( But yeah, orange, apple & grape juice can all die ;)
what about Cran-Apple? would you kill that, too? and what if the juices are carbonated, like the Martinelli's apple juice? What about beverages which "contain(s) 10% juice?" How would this anti-juicist deal with them?
You see, it's a complex issue. I plea for moderation on all sides.
I likes me some Martinelli's! Prune juice, however...
that along w egg nog, says Holidays, to me. Except you can't get egg nog year round.
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
Aww c'mon man, pineapple juice ain't that bad. >:( But yeah, orange, apple & grape juice can all die ;)
what about Cran-Apple? would you kill that, too? and what if the juices are carbonated, like the Martinelli's apple juice? What about beverages which "contain(s) 10% juice?" How would this anti-juicist deal with them?
You see, it's a complex issue. I plea for moderation on all sides.
I likes me some Martinelli's! Prune juice, however...
that along w egg nog, says Holidays, to me. Except you can't get egg nog year round.
Prune juice or Sparkling Apple Cider?
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There's nothing like a bigot who can't spell...
Aww c'mon man, pineapple juice ain't that bad. >:( But yeah, orange, apple & grape juice can all die ;)
what about Cran-Apple? would you kill that, too? and what if the juices are carbonated, like the Martinelli's apple juice? What about beverages which "contain(s) 10% juice?" How would this anti-juicist deal with them?
You see, it's a complex issue. I plea for moderation on all sides.
I likes me some Martinelli's! Prune juice, however...
that along w egg nog, says Holidays, to me. Except you can't get egg nog year round.
Prune juice or Sparkling Apple Cider?
Sparkling prune juice, of course!
(http://reporter.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/03/dr_pepper_can.jpg)
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Haha, well played, rad!
(Even though I like Dr Pepper better than Pepsi or Coke.)
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Haha, well played, rad!
(Even though I like Dr Pepper better than Pepsi or Coke.)
Bwahahaha! The Dr Pepper folks deny there's prune juice in it, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who's heard that famous rumor.
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Two spaces after a period is a no-no? Since when?
http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/
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Two spaces after a period is a no-no? Since when?
http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/
funny, I've had this argument too; I was raised on the two-space rule too!
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Two spaces after a period is a no-no? Since when?
http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/
funny, I've had this argument too; I was raised on the two-space rule too!
Interesting. The logic of the article is fairly persuasive, it's just something we were taught from the time of typewriters. Still, I don't think I want to un-learn it. It's automatic for me now. If I attempt to change, I'll have a mish-mash of single and double spaces for some time to come.
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Quick! what's wrong with the following SFGate article?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/25/DDSV1HDIJ8.DTL&type=entertainment
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Quick! what's wrong with the following SFGate article?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/25/DDSV1HDIJ8.DTL&type=entertainment
I wonder what Neil Patrick Harris has to say about this. No, really!
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Quick! what's wrong with the following SFGate article?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/25/DDSV1HDIJ8.DTL&type=entertainment
I wonder what Neil Patrick Harris has to say about this. No, really!
oh lordy, the copy desk is fixing right now. thanks
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Quick! what's wrong with the following SFGate article?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/25/DDSV1HDIJ8.DTL&type=entertainment
I wonder what Neil Patrick Harris has to say about this. No, really!
oh lordy, the copy desk is fixing right now. thanks
While we are at it, let's get IT to do something about getclicky.com. My anti-virus is having a cow every time I access sfgate today.
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Quick! what's wrong with the following SFGate article?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/25/DDSV1HDIJ8.DTL&type=entertainment
I wonder what Neil Patrick Harris has to say about this. No, really!
oh lordy, the copy desk is fixing right now. thanks
While we are at it, let's get IT to do something about getclicky.com. My anti-virus is having a cow every time I access sfgate today.
Hi Rod,
still getting that problem? is it on every page? if not, could be a bad ad that is causing mischief.
if so, can you use this feedback page to send in a note?
www.sfgate.com/feedback
(the form on the page will capture your user agent string and assist in troubleshooting)...
many thanks!
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While we are at it, let's get IT to do something about getclicky.com. My anti-virus is having a cow every time I access sfgate today.
Hi Rod,
still getting that problem? is it on every page? if not, could be a bad ad that is causing mischief.
if so, can you use this feedback page to send in a note?
www.sfgate.com/feedback
(the form on the page will capture your user agent string and assist in troubleshooting)...
many thanks!
Seems to be fine now. I was getting it while reading the Jon Carroll column this morning, and on Tafur's Raider article about Hue Jackson. Also when I clicked the link in this thread. Now, all are fine.
Thanks.
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Quick! what's wrong with the following SFGate article?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/25/DDSV1HDIJ8.DTL&type=entertainment
I wonder what Neil Patrick Harris has to say about this. No, really!
oh lordy, the copy desk is fixing right now. thanks
Whatever this was got fixed by the time I clicked thru to see it (the saving grace of the web--you can make your mistakes disappear, assuming no one grabbed a screenshot). So what was it?
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presenting... the "Doris Day" Font:
http://www.macworld.com/article/159165/2011/04/dorisday.html#lsrc.rss_main
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presenting... the "Doris Day" Font:
http://www.macworld.com/article/159165/2011/04/dorisday.html#lsrc.rss_main
It's attractive, but it needs more distinction between periods and commas.
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presenting... the "Doris Day" Font:
http://www.macworld.com/article/159165/2011/04/dorisday.html#lsrc.rss_main
It's attractive, but it needs more distinction between periods and commas.
Doris Day had periods?
...but seriously, Doris and I go way back. In fact, I knew her BEFORE she was a virgin!
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damn, a big week for stories about fonts!
http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/04/saving-a-mecca-of-type-photo-lettering-fonts-go-digital/237661/
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http://www.theonion.com/articles/grizzled-proofreader-has-seen-it-written-both-ways,21180/
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This probably belongs in the Cool-Not-Funny-Stuff page, but this page needed a little love. :)
Words with no English translation:
(Dayum, I tartle all the time. Here I thought it was just me...)
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/102722
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This probably belongs in the Cool-Not-Funny-Stuff page, but this page needed a little love. :)
Words with no English translation:
(Dayum, I tartle all the time. Here I thought it was just me...)
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/102722
Maybe one of them can tell us what it means "to haver."
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Just this year, Perry, 27, has underwent several hair color changes. In June, the brunette beauty dyed her hair a fiery red, which was a result of a botched dye job.
as seen on Us Weekly which they then changed to
Just this year, Perry, 27, has undergone several hair color changes. In June, the brunette beauty dyed her hair a fiery red, which was a result of a botched dye job.
after getting slammed by readers.
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In the wake of Alec Baldwin's being tossed off a commercial flight for being difficult with the flight crew, SFGate is running a photo gallery of other celebs who have been bounced off of airplanes. Included in this is a picture of REM guitarist Peter Buck, who is a member of this exclusive society. At least, that's who it's supposed to be. Only thing is, the pic is of Michael Stipe.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2011/12/09/celebrity_airplane_problems.DTL&object=%2Fc%2Fpictures%2F2011%2F12%2F09%2Fdd-REM18_PH1_0422415887.jpg&win=open
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(http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/everytime-you-make-a-type-the-errorists-win-240x180.jpg)
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A contender for best headline of the year, right now on SFGate:
"Boy shot by family taco truck dies"
Of course, when you click through to the article, the head actually reads "Boy shot near family taco truck dies" but I suppose that didn't quite fit. At least there's not a homicidal taco truck somewhere on the loose.
Sorry to pick on your place of employ TC, but they give us so many opportunities, sometimes it's hard to resist.
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A contender for best headline of the year, right now on SFGate:
"Boy shot by family taco truck dies"
Of course, when you click through to the article, the head actually reads "Boy shot near family taco truck dies" but I suppose that didn't quite fit. At least there's not a homicidal taco truck somewhere on the loose.
Sorry to pick on your place of employ TC, but they give us so many opportunities, sometimes it's hard to resist.
I don't blame you. You gotta call em like you see em. (that headline was noticed by a Chronicle writer who sent in an email that it should be changed and someone got to it eventually..)
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A contender for best headline of the year, right now on SFGate:
"Boy shot by family taco truck dies"
Of course, when you click through to the article, the head actually reads "Boy shot near family taco truck dies" but I suppose that didn't quite fit. At least there's not a homicidal taco truck somewhere on the loose.
Sorry to pick on your place of employ TC, but they give us so many opportunities, sometimes it's hard to resist.
I don't blame you. You gotta call em like you see em. (that headline was noticed by a Chronicle writer who sent in an email that it should be changed and someone got to it eventually..)
And to be fair, SFGate isn't the only one with some great headline typos/malaprops. Our local fishwrap, the lovingly mocked Yamhill News-Resister (sic) never lets an issue pass without at least one or two oddly phrased or misspelled heds. A quaint example of small town journalism, it jumps between the sensational (lots of stories of drug-fueled misdeeds by resident delinquents) and folksy, aw-shucks kinds of stories about various local characters. (So help me god there was a front page piece earlier this year about a cat being rescued out of a tree.) And they also post a weekly roster of who's cooling their heels in the county jail. Reading it is like stepping back 50+ years in time.
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Not to pick on sfgate, just that I noticed it. This review of the new Russian musical "Hipsters," we learn that it is "In Russian with Russian subtitles."
That's not going to help me much.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/13/DDD41MNQ1E.DTL
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Not to pick on sfgate, just that I noticed it. This review of the new Russian musical "Hipsters," we learn that it is "In Russian with Russian subtitles."
That's not going to help me much.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/13/DDD41MNQ1E.DTL
Spasiba!
oops. it's in print, too.
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Not to pick on sfgate, just that I noticed it. This review of the new Russian musical "Hipsters," we learn that it is "In Russian with Russian subtitles."
That's not going to help me much.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/13/DDD41MNQ1E.DTL
Spasiba!
oops. it's in print, too.
спасибо
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and the latest SFGate snafu -- this headline/link currently on the home page:
"Steve Jobs sitting with Michelle Obama at SOTU"
Of course it should read "Steve Jobs' widow..."
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and the latest SFGate snafu -- this headline/link currently on the home page:
"Steve Jobs sitting with Michelle Obama at SOTU"
Of course it should read "Steve Jobs' widow..."
that is so fixed, dude
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and the latest SFGate snafu -- this headline/link currently on the home page:
"Steve Jobs sitting with Michelle Obama at SOTU"
Of course it should read "Steve Jobs' widow..."
Weekend at Bernie's III?
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Sorry to pile on SFGate, TC, but there's a glitch on your front door: The "Don't Miss" links right below the banner include one to this article about the new Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, dated today's date.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/23/DD4F1MR3A8.DTL
Only thing is, the article won't be live until 3am Wednesday morning. You can view the pictures, but no written content.
I had the same experience on Saturday with Sunday's Radio Waves column, although at least that link was buried on the TV & Radio page, and I had gone looking for it. Posting links to articles that aren't live = Bad user experience.
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Sorry to pile on SFGate, TC, but there's a glitch on your front door: The "Don't Miss" links right below the banner include one to this article about the new Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, dated today's date.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/23/DD4F1MR3A8.DTL
Only thing is, the article won't be live until 3am Wednesday morning. You can view the pictures, but no written content.
I had the same experience on Saturday with Sunday's Radio Waves column, although at least that link was buried on the TV & Radio page, and I had gone looking for it. Posting links to articles that aren't live = Bad user experience.
the Don't Miss link is a mistake, obviously. "Don't Miss! (click) Oh, too late, you missed it.. sucker!"
The Radio Waves one is not a mistake. It's supposed to entice you to pay for a product. Looks like it didn't work on you.. dang.
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Why??? This error is new to me. Posted on FB by one of my friends, should be good riddance, posted as "...and good riddens."
This stuff KILLS me.
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Why??? This error is new to me. Posted on FB by one of my friends, should be good riddance, posted as "...and good riddens."
This stuff KILLS me.
Yup, that's a new one on me, too, and I look for that kinda shit all the time. But now that it's reared its ugly head once, I'm betting it shows up again. And again.
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Why??? This error is new to me. Posted on FB by one of my friends, should be good riddance, posted as "...and good riddens."
This stuff KILLS me.
Yup, that's a new one on me, too, and I look for that kinda shit all the time. But now that it's reared its ugly head once, I'm betting it shows up again. And again.
Facebook needs spellcheck.
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Why??? This error is new to me. Posted on FB by one of my friends, should be good riddance, posted as "...and good riddens."
This stuff KILLS me.
Yup, that's a new one on me, too, and I look for that kinda shit all the time. But now that it's reared its ugly head once, I'm betting it shows up again. And again.
Facebook needs spellcheck.
It seems to have it on my laptop. Not on my phone, though.
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From a comment on a Yahoo! article:
...surly you jest....(dont call me surly) i love that line.lol,now look are you smoking that purple Yahoo! kush
i love that typo,lol,don't bogart that purple kush or I'll really get surly
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a couple of NY Time pieces about commas:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/fanfare-for-the-comma-man/
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/the-most-comma-mistakes/
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Just noticed this typo in the video carousel on SFGate's front page:
"Selena Gomez Celebrates Her 118th Birthday"
My, she's aged well....
(To be fair, I'd guess these heds are fed by the same third-party provider that serves the video feeds.)
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From the world's worst Facebook thread comes this awesome use of an apostrophe in a plural (my most hated grammatical error):
"The 49er's won the Super Bowl, the DVD was introduced to the world, and we first heard 'No Soup For You!' It's 1995 on today's 10@10 with Renee!"
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From the world's worst Facebook thread
No kidding. It's almost remarkable how pathetic it is. I'm sorry for giving her the idea.
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The amusing Peter Hartlaub piece on SFGate today, about how the events in "Red Dawn" could never happen (because we're, like, smart'n'stuff) contained the following sentence:
"That's a lot of disbelief to suspend — the idea that a economically struggling country of 24 million could submit a technically superior country that occupies 3.79 million square miles. I would argue the PRK's ability to occupy Millbrae, much less all of the United States."
I commented that the sentence needed a grammatical makeover: "For 'submit', substitute 'subjugate' and for 'argue', substitute 'dispute' and then maybe that sentence will make sense."
Hartlaub replied that to "submit" someone or something is an MMA term that ought to be in everyday use. So, we're looking to MMA to improve the language now?
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The amusing Peter Hartlaub piece on SFGate today, about how the events in "Red Dawn" could never happen (because we're, like, smart'n'stuff) contained the following sentence:
"That's a lot of disbelief to suspend — the idea that a economically struggling country of 24 million could submit a technically superior country that occupies 3.79 million square miles. I would argue the PRK's ability to occupy Millbrae, much less all of the United States."
I commented that the sentence needed a grammatical makeover: "For 'submit', substitute 'subjugate' and for 'argue', substitute 'dispute' and then maybe that sentence will make sense."
Hartlaub replied that to "submit" someone or something is an MMA term that ought to be in everyday use. So, we're looking to MMA to improve the language now?
Better than the WWF, fwiw. ;) Strange usage, though.
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The amusing Peter Hartlaub piece on SFGate today, about how the events in "Red Dawn" could never happen (because we're, like, smart'n'stuff) contained the following sentence:
"That's a lot of disbelief to suspend — the idea that a economically struggling country of 24 million could submit a technically superior country that occupies 3.79 million square miles. I would argue the PRK's ability to occupy Millbrae, much less all of the United States."
I commented that the sentence needed a grammatical makeover: "For 'submit', substitute 'subjugate' and for 'argue', substitute 'dispute' and then maybe that sentence will make sense."
Hartlaub replied that to "submit" someone or something is an MMA term that ought to be in everyday use. So, we're looking to MMA to improve the language now?
Better than the WWF, fwiw. ;) Strange usage, though.
also
"....that a economically struggling..."
should be
"...that an economically struggling..."
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The amusing Peter Hartlaub piece on SFGate today, about how the events in "Red Dawn" could never happen (because we're, like, smart'n'stuff) contained the following sentence:
"That's a lot of disbelief to suspend — the idea that a economically struggling country of 24 million could submit a technically superior country that occupies 3.79 million square miles. I would argue the PRK's ability to occupy Millbrae, much less all of the United States."
I commented that the sentence needed a grammatical makeover: "For 'submit', substitute 'subjugate' and for 'argue', substitute 'dispute' and then maybe that sentence will make sense."
Hartlaub replied that to "submit" someone or something is an MMA term that ought to be in everyday use. So, we're looking to MMA to improve the language now?
Better than the WWF, fwiw. ;) Strange usage, though.
also
"....that a economically struggling..."
should be
"...that an economically struggling..."
Props to Hartlaub, tho', for reading the comments section on his articles. LaSalle used to claim that he never did (I think he does now)
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question I've always meant to ask: did the word "disambiguation" exist before Wikipedia? or did they invent it?
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There's an airline ad plastered all over BART stations -- promoting their sleeper seats -- that says you'll "wake up in a different continent". In my experience, one is "IN a country" but "ON a continent". What say ye copy editors?
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There's an airline ad plastered all over BART stations -- promoting their sleeper seats -- that says you'll "wake up in a different continent". In my experience, one is "IN a country" but "ON a continent". What say ye copy editors?
Agree.
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Copy Editors pet peeves:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emmyf/impact-as-a-verb-is-totally-fine?bffb&utm_term=4ldqpgp#.mbZ89nzDN3
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An FB friend (a news guy I worked with in my radio days) posted this excerpt from a NY Times article today and asked whatever happened to editors:
"Mrs. Trudeau attributes the stability that has finally came to her life largely to the patient work of Dr. Colin Cameron, a psychiatrist at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Center, a mental health center."
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Coulda put this in the "Print Media" thread too. But if you haven't encountered this (actual WashPo) headline on Facebook...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/14/uranus-might-be-full-of-surprises/?postshare=2711447881986962&tid=ss_fb-bottom
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Coulda put this in the "Print Media" thread too. But if you haven't encountered this (actual WashPo) headline on Facebook...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/14/uranus-might-be-full-of-surprises/?postshare=2711447881986962&tid=ss_fb-bottom
Any headline including the word "Uranus" is fraught with danger. Tread carefully.
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I think the media missed a headline opportunity:
Heavens To Murgatroyd! Brexit Stage Left
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I think the media missed a headline opportunity:
Heavens To Murgatroyd! Brexit Stage Left
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The NY Times Food FB page posted a recipe with the comment "You're summer sandwich." To which I replied "I am?" And someone else wrote "I am not!"
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A copy editor's Christmas: It's "God Rest Ye Merry (comma) Gentlemen", NOT "God Rest Ye (comma) Merry Gentlemen"
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From an article on Slate.com:
A California teacher who was a reserve officer for the local police department and trained in firearms accidentally fired a loaded gun in his classroom on Tuesday.
It's really hard to fire an unloaded gun.