By Bob Yearick
Where Are the Editors? (Formerly “Media Watch”)
• Headline from the The News Journal, courtesy of reader Rick Straitman: “How Wilmington’s mayoral candidates are fairing in raising funds.” They are faring, a verb that means to perform or manage in a specific way. A fairing is a noun that refers to a structure used to reduce drag in vehicles or aircraft.
• Tom Withers, of The Associated Press: “The (Cleveland) Browns are thriving with complimentary football.” The latest unnecessary addition to the ever-changing lexicon of the gridiron sport is “complementary football,” which basically means a team’s offense and its defense are both playing well, thus complementing each other — not giving each other high fives. Withers apparently hasn’t mastered the term yet.
• EJ Smith, in The Philadelphia Inquirer, speculating on Eagles center Jason Kelce’s retirement: “When that may begin isn’t certain, but the Eagles’ wild card round matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night begs the question.” This term is misused in the sense of “raises the question” to the point that it’s accepted by some in the media. Not here. In modern usage, begs the question refers to an argument in which the premise assumes the conclusion without supporting it, making it pretty much a circular argument. E.g., “It’s time for you to go to bed because it’s your bedtime.” It’s best for all writers (and everyone) to simply avoid using this term.
• Seth Engle created a dangler in The Inky about former St. Joesph’s University basketball coach Phil Martelli: “Despite being a legend inside St. Joseph’s Hagan Arena, the Palestra has always been Phil’s playground.” Martelli is the legend at St. Joe’s arena, not the Palestra.
• Reader Larry Hamermesh presents us with a challenging sentence from a review in The News Journal of the science fiction movie I.S.S. (whose stars include Wilmington’s own John Gallagher Jr.): “It’s notable that of the film’s plot machinations, all-out warfare wasn’t the least implausible invention.” Wading through the triple negative — wasn’t, least, implausible — Larry argues that the reviewer meant to say, “all-out warfare wasn’t the most implausible invention.” And I agree.
• Similarly, here’s the lead sentence from a story in the British tabloid The Daily Mail: “Piers Morgan has been forced to deny he’s not the pigeon lady from Home Alone 2.” In this case, the writer obviously meant Morgan was forced to deny that he is the pigeon lady.
• Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, reviewing True Detective: Night Country: “The season takes place during the period of the Alaskan winter in which the sun never rises, pitching the frozen tundra into 24-hour night.” A few picky geologists may argue that it’s possible for tundra not to be frozen, but it’s very rare, making frozen tundra essentially redundant. Anyway, wouldn’t all the tundra be pitched “into 24-hour night,” not just the frozen kind?
Disturbing Trends
The intrusive of is rampant. Some may think it’s not that big (of) a deal, but it should be dropped in instances such as these:
• ESPN anchor Hannah Storm: “It was not so good of a night for Bradley Beal.”
• A local commercial for SchagrinGas Co. includes this: “We don’t need as large of a generator.” (The commercial also contains the ponderous preventative, instead of the much more palatable preventive.)
Totally Unrelated
During a recent Philadelphia 76ers game in Denver, the Ball Arena crowd discovered that NBA MVP Joel Embiid would not suit up for the Sixers, thus avoiding a matchup with Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic. That prompted them to chant, “Where’s Embiid at?” While this column has always maintained that there is no rule against ending a sentence in a preposition, a simple “Where’s Embiid?” would’ve served them much better.
Department of Redundancies Dept.
• Headline in The Inky: “Menendez is accused of more corruption allegations.”
• Son Steven caught Sen. Joe Manchin speaking about GOP contenders dropping out so quickly: “ I just can’t believe it because it’s hard for me to fathom that.” I think that also qualifies as begging the question.
• And Steven recently received this rather demanding meeting notice: “Mandatory attendance required.”
Word of the Month
vitrine
Pronounced vit-reen, it’s a noun meaning a glass showcase or cabinet, especially for displaying fine wares or specimens.
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