By Bob Yearick
And The Winners Are…
Our latest contest, published in the March issue, was a challenging one, with many mistakes in two vignettes: “The Parade” and “A UD Romance.” Thanks to all those readers who took on the challenge. The two entrants who came closest to finding all the errors were Luann Haney and Larry Kerchner. Both will receive a $25 gift certificate to an area restaurant.
Here’s the corrected edit, with errors in italics, followed by corrections in parentheses:
The Parade
The victory parade started at 10 a.m. in the morning (delete — redundant) and was comprised of (composed of or made up of) six different (delete — superfluous) high school bands, the Mayor (mayor — lower-case mayor unless it precedes a name) and some other politicians, a group of former Eagles players from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, (‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s) and then the current team. People along the parade route wore shirts and hats with ‘Go Birds’ (“Go, Birds”) or ‘Lets Hunt’ (“Let’s Hunt”) on them. All the players wore their game jerseys except A.J. Brown, who was donning (wore; donning means “to put on”) a Saquon Barkley jersey — number 28 (26 — this is the factual error).
Everyone thinks that Philadelphia fans cause trouble, but that is a misnomer (misconception; misnomer is an incorrect name for something). There were no incidences (incidents) of lawlessness that day, and no one was arrested and interred (interned) in the local jail.
Travis Kelce of the Chiefs was in the crowd, and he said he certainly was not ashamed of the way his team had played. “We have nothing to hang our hat on,” (“We have nothing to hang our heads about”) he said.
A UD Romance
The world is full of meet-cute stories. Case and point (Case in point): Betsy and Carl. Betsy is a former (delete — redundant; once an alum, always an alum) alumna of the University of Delaware and Carl is a UD alumni (alumnus; alumni is plural) too. They met during their sophomore year when she dialed his number on accident (by accident). They started talking, and Betsy mentioned that her rent was in the rears (in arrears). “Here’s the thing is (delete — redundant),” she said, “I accumulated a lot of expenses and let some things fall between the cracks (through the cracks or between the slats) and then all of the sudden (all of a sudden) my landlord is at my door demanding to be paid. For all intensive purposes (all intents and purposes) I’m broke, and I have a pit in my stomach (bad feeling in the pit of my stomach), and it’s not from hunger pains (pangs).”
“Listen Betsy,” (A comma is needed after listen) Carl said, “my bank account is hale and hardy (hearty), and I’ll be happy to give you the money you need”.(The quote mark goes after the period: need.”)
“Here, here (Hear, hear),” shouted Betsy.
After that, they started dating. However, their romance had to endure a gantlet (gauntlet) of challenges, including menacing (delete — redundant/superfluous) death threats from her former ex-boyfriend (delete former or ex-; they have the same meaning). Even (delete — redundant) (Still), their love survived and they eventually entered into Holy Matrimony (holy matrimony).
Media Watch
• Nick Brinkerhoff, in USA TODAY: “Kupp finished third in league MVP voting following his dominate 2021 season.” That’s dominant — the adjective. Dominate is a verb.
• From an email from Democratic Conservationists: “If we don’t take action to stop the dangerous affects of climate change, then we can expect 2025 to be even worse.” That’s effects.
• Spotlight Delaware caption: Rep. Krista Griffith, the bill sponsor in the House, lead the fight against amendments to Senate Bill 21 . . .” The past tense of to lead is led.
Department of Redundancies Dept.
An NBC anchor reported that a serial killer had “killed six different people.” So, he didn’t kill one person six times?
Apologies: In last month’s column, McKinley (as in President William McKinley) was misspelled — twice. Not grammar, however; just a simple typo.
Word of the Month
cri de cœur
Pronounced kree-da-kerr, it’s a noun meaning a passionate outcry (as of appeal or protest). E.g., Joseph Welch, chief counsel for the Army in 1954 while it was under investigation for Communist activities by Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s subcommittee, to McCarthy: “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
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