By Bob Yearick
Where are the Editors?
• “Breaking the stigma of adult literacy in Delaware” was a recent Sunday News Journal headline that caught the eye of reader Larry Hamermesh, who predicted that I would get many messages about it. Sadly, Larry’s was the only one. Maybe Delaware adult literacy does have a stigma.
• Becca O’Reilly, writing about ultramarathoner Bud Wilson in The Philadelphia Inquirer, was caught with her modifier dangling: “As a father of three, the organization (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital) is an important motivator for Wilson as he runs.” Wilson is a father, not St. Jude Hospital.
• A reader spotted this from Lauren Lingle’s story in The News Journal: “In Delaware, Breyers is the most-searched ice cream brand, along with New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina.” No such ice cream brands exist. This is another example of a misplaced modifier, but this one occurs at the end of the sentence.
• USA Today gifted us with this headline about soccer players going prone to defend against free kicks: “Laying down on the job.” They were lying down.
• Wilmington’s radio station WDEL, reporting on California Gov. Gavin Newsom: “Newsom says Trump has sent the Justice Department to investigate he and his wife.” Oof! That’s him — object of the verb investigate.
• John Stoehr on the website Alternet, writing about the war in Iran: “The only way to end the war was through deal-making. However, given that Trump is the world’s worse dealmaker, despite a reputation to the contrary, . . .” That’s worst. I’m once again amazed that a professional writer would make this mistake.
• Reader Greg Lane spotted this in a USA Today article about the Artemis II space flight: “At 7 p.m., Orion reached its closest approach to the moon at about 4,067 miles above the lunar surface, traveling at a distance of about 3,139 miles per hour relative to the moon and 60,863 miles per hour relative to Earth.” Distance, as Greg points out, is not measured in mph.
• And finally, reader Larry Kerchner reports that, at a recent Carnegie Hall performance, there were containers of cough drops, apparently meant to help audience members ward off coughing during the performance. “A great idea,” says Larry, “but posted over the display was a sign that read, ‘Complimentary throat lozengers.’ In Carnegie-friggin’-Hall!” (There is no r in lozenges. But hey, they got complimentary right.)
Most Beautiful
According to the Poetry Society of America, the most beautiful word in the English language is diaphanous — meaning transparent, sheer, translucent. Closely behind, according to the poets, is ethereal, which means light and airy, otherworldly. Rounding out the top three of pleasant-sounding words is mellifluous, which happens to mean pleasant-sounding.
The Gift that Keeps on Giving
Channel 10 in Philadelphia is becoming a regular here with its chyrons (text crawling across the bottom of the TV screen). Two recent examples:
• “Report finds less kids are reading for fun.” As we all know, plurals (e.g., “kids”) are fewer, not less.
• And one that falls under Department of Redundancies Dept.: “Heavy Rain Falls During Storm.” Gee, ya think?
Pet Peeve
I’ve recently noticed a perversion of the phrase “eke (not eek) out” — namely, the omission of the traditional preposition out. Here’s an example from The Inquirer’s Scott Lauber: “OK, so Marsh’s leadoff homer in the third inning did eke over the fence.” Bryan A. Garner, in Garner’s Modern American Usage, calls this tendency of sportswriters to “use eke without its inseparable companion out, as if it meant something like squeak,” unfortunate. Eke never means overflow, spill, or go beyond. Better that Lauber had chosen “sneaked over” or “barely cleared.”
Department of Redundancies Dept.
• Dan DeLuca, in The Inky, writing about Adam Weiner of Low-Cut Connie and their new album, Livin’ in the USA: “As he explains in an explanatory note that accompanies the album, . . .”
• Dan’s colleague, Brooke Schultz, gives us this: “For Deepak Gupta, playing Ping Pong is something of living out a childhood dream for him.” Also, it’s “something like living out a childhood dream.”
• From Reuters.com: “Investors remain cautiously optimistic for the future ahead.” As opposed to the future behind?
Word of the Month
sequelae
Pronounced see-kwell-ah, it’s a noun meaning an aftereffect of a disease, condition, or injury; a secondary result.
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