By Bob Yearick
Last month’s column featured a submission from Luann Haney, co-winner of our March grammar test, about a CBS News story reporting that the manager of Dollar Universe buys packages “in palates from liquidation centers.” Palate refers to the roof of the mouth. The correct word in this case is pallet. I added a third word — palette — which can refer to a range of colors or a comparable range of other things.
After reading the column, daughter Danielle, an assiduous researcher, took a dive down the investigatory rabbit hole and came up with this: “ABC7 New York journalist Kemberly Richardson wrote a nearly identical online piece, but she used palettes: ‘About every two weeks, Almonte says he heads to liquidators in Brooklyn and New Jersey and buys palettes of about 400 items on each for roughly $600.’ Others, like the NY Post, just used ‘packages’ or ‘containers.’ The only source to correctly use ‘pallets’ was MoneyWise.com.”
Tying a bow on the discussion is this clever and alliterative take from Larry Kerchner, the other winner in our contest: “Seeing the submission from my esteemed co-winner, Luann, in August’s column reminded me of Annette’s and my dining experience at Feby’s Fishery. It was terrific! They served such a palate-pleasing palette of pesce that we wished we could have ordered it by the pallet!”
Department of Redundancies Dept.
Anitra Johnson, in The News Journal: “The pay was excellent, the hospital was close to their Maryland homes, and its location in Lewes — a beach town popular with Washington’s elite — was an added bonus.” Bonus: “Something extra or additional given freely.”
They Know Not of What They Write
Speaking of misused words, these recent examples make one wonder if there are any careful writers (or editors) still working in the media:
• Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, in an obituary of Ozzy Osbourne: “He followed his rock zenith with a reality TV career, making him as well known for biting the head off a bat on stage as his bemusing bickering at home with his wife and kids.” Like many people, Melissa mistakes bemusing for amusing, when it actually means confusing, puzzling. And if there is any doubt that she meant amusing, there is this later in the story: “The Osbournes aired on MTV for four seasons, beginning in 2002. The show crackled with humor as it followed the family through exploits that often seemed perfectly crafted for reality TV.”
• Reader David Hull sends this Theatre N description of the movie Come and See: “. . . one of the most prolific anti-war films in a sea of films that seek to glorify the cruel realities.” Prolific — “producing or creating something in large quantities or with great frequency”— simply doesn’t fit here. Profound would have worked.
• Reader Walt Frank submits this from Fox News, on Bryce Harper’s clash with Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred in the Phillies clubhouse: “Nick Castellanos tried to diffuse the situation, saying he had more questions.” Often misused for defuse, diffuse as a verb means to pour out and permit or cause to spread freely; extend, scatter.
• Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY, referring to Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Ichiro Suzuki’s speech: “[the day] ended with a comedy show by the least suspecting Hall of Famer, with most of the audience unaware he even spoke English.” Nightengale, a nationally known columnist who has only a nodding acquaintance with the English language, meant “least likely.”
• Matt Hayes, USA TODAY, in a clumsily worded sentence, misused a common phrase: “Is it as cut and dry as Alabama, if it had one more regular season win in DeBoer’s first season in Tuscaloosa, would’ve made the College Football Playoff and all would’ve been well in the land where The Standard is the Standard?” The phrase is “cut and dried.”
• News Journal subhead: “With Elon Musk wielding his Dexit megaphone, should Delawareans worry about the state’s status as the corporate capitol?” Capitol refers to a government building. Capital (the correct word in this example) means the most important city or town of a country or region, usually its seat of government and administrative center.
Word of the Month
denouement
Pronounced dey-noo-mahn, it’s a noun meaning the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel; the place in the plot at which this occurs; the outcome or resolution of a previously uncertain series of occurrences.
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