By Bob Yearick
Residue from the Eagles Super Bowl Win and Victory Parade
• ESPN’s Ryan Clark on Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts: “This man is on a future Hall of Fame trajectory right now.” Make up your mind, Ryan: Is he on a HOF trajectory now or in the future?
• Retired Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky complained on Facebook that Channel 6 announcers were saying the parade would go “down Broad Street and down the Parkway.” In both cases, the direction is up.
• Speaking of Channel 6, its star weather forecaster, Adam Joseph, while covering the parade, griped: “We haven’t ate or drank for several hours.” Eaten and drunk are the correct verbs here.
Media Watch
• The Collegian, Penn State’s student newspaper, called former star quarterback Trace McSorley an alumni. He is, of course, an alumnus. Alumni is plural.
• Marcus Hayes, the excellent Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, committed this rare-for-him dangler in writing about Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith: “After recording one sack as a rookie first-rounder, the Eagles thought so much of Smith that they signed pass-rush specialist Bryce Huff to a $51 million contract — which is to say, they didn’t think Smith would be quite what he’s become.” The sentence makes it seem as if the Eagles are the one-sack, rookie first rounder.
• The Associated Press had a similar problem with this sentence: “The Chiefs will have kicker Harrison Butker back after missing four games to knee surgery.” This reads as if the team missed four games, not the kicker. Changing missing to “he missed” would have fixed it.
• Olivia Reiner, in The Inky: “Over The Cap is projecting that the Eagles will not be awarded any compensatory picks in this year’s draft, which is unsurprising, given the team’s sizable haul in free agency last offseason relative to the small quantity of players they let walk.” Amazing how many writers don’t know that when you’re dealing with plurals, the correct word is number.
Broadcast Boo-Boos
TV and radio have recently delivered a spate of mispronounced or misused words:
• A National Debt Relief commercial leads off with a testimonial from a woman who insists that she was “drownding in debt.” There is only one d in drowning.
• On PBS, Rich Benajmin, author of Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America, said that white communities he visited for his 2009 book were securing their communities by “battering down the hatches.” Actually, they were battening down the hatches, which means fastening something by afixing pieces of wood to it — pretty much the opposite of battering.
• Mo Rocca, correspondent on CBS News Sunday Morning, in a piece about President William McKinley, claimed that McKinley had “the ignominious distinction” of being one of only four presidents to be assassinated. There is nothing ignominious — deserving or causing public disgrace or shame — about being assassinated.
• Sam Brock, correspondent for NBC News, joined a driving expert for what he called “a primer” — pronouncing it pry-mer — on how to drive in the snow. In U.S. English, the correct pronunciation is primmer — meaning a schoolbook. Pronounced as Sam did, it means the coat that goes on before the paint on a car or a house, or an explosive cap.
• And finally, Danny Pommels, on SportsNet Central, discussed Eagles’ attempts to keep linebacker Zach Baun, saying that there had been “conversations between he and the Birds.” See that preposition between? That means Danny should have used the objective pronoun — him.
Department of Redundancies Dept.
• Patricia Talorico, in the The News Journal: “Bardea was created inside a historic building that was once a former fried chicken restaurant, an optical store and a law firm.” It is still a former fried chicken restaurant, etc.
• Reader Luann Haney submits this headline from the WDEL website: “Man arrested following investigation into numerous stolen vehicle thefts.” Don’t all stolen vehicles involve theft?
Word of the Month
Archaeolatry
Pronounced ar-kee-AH-luh-tree, it’s a noun meaning excessive reverence for the past: an earlier time, old customs, antiquity, etc.
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