Sometimes, I love what
pedants pick up, even when I goof. I love
The Atlantic for this reason, reading through
Barbara Walraff’s ‘Word Court’.
Here’s a great one from Josh, who points out a problem in the Irish paper—I mean,
The New Zealand Herald.
I have a lot of reasons to like the
Herald, balanced by a lot of reasons to hate it, so I am “fair and balanced”. And here’s one to hate it: an inability to use the
English language. In its editorial today:
Maori have reminded the bridge managers that they readily hoisted the Team NZ petard during the America’s Cup. I’ll let Josh
explain the rest. Now, I would add a macron on the
a in
Māori—after all, this is an official language in
New Zealand; and I am one of those oddballs who like seeing
America italicized in the above context, since it is the name of a ship, not the continent(s).
Personal note: it’s still useful to keep a copy of an
Oxford dictionary (an old
Concise, in my case, and
the latest includes the verb sex it up) next to the computer monitor.
Posted by Jack Yan, 04:16
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