I once offered my students extra credit for every grammar error they found in print. Fairly soon I was forced to exclude mistakes from a couple of newspapers. Had I not done so, every kid would have received an A+. It was just too easy! But The New York Times was different. Finding a poorly worded sentence there was tough — then. Now, I’m not so sure.
Here’s a pull-quote that should have been pulled before it hit the screen or page:
What a difference one extra letter makes! I’m not going to speculate about the nature of “gentile” affirmations or how they differ from Jewish affirmations. Instead, I will proceed to another lapse in grammatical judgment.
This pull-quote comes from an obituary:
I hadn’t realized that it was possible to “use” a surf, let alone “for D-Day.” Misplaced modifier, anyone?
One more, from my archives:
“Square foot modern.” A new architectural style?
In fairness to my local paper, I have to forgive the editors who overlooked these mistakes. No one’s perfect. As we all know, to err is humane.
It’s called economy of words. Gentile affirmations are more gentle(manly). (Although some claim HM’s raison d‘etre was to change that.) The Newspaper of Record was killing two wasps with one stone.
I’m still chuckling, Bill. Thanks for your comment!
Your post was on my mind as I reviewed my new patient’s chart at the hospital today. Included was a letter from a doctor at another facility. The letter concluded with a lovely irony: “This dictation was made with voice recognition software and may contain an intended errors.”
I shudder at the thought of what the intended errors might be.
An intended error! Wonderful. I can only hope the same program doesn’t write prescriptions!
Perhaps, like the Big K kilogram, the square foot is shrinking into the square foot modern. It certainly seems that way in NYC apts anyway.
Good point! I wonder how many “square foot moderns” there are in a “square yard modern”?