3.2.07 God bless the pedants
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 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
|
NoteEntries from 2006 to the end of 2009 were done on the Blogger service. As of January 1, 2010, this blog has shifted to a Wordpress installation, with the latest posts here.With Blogger ceasing to support FTP publishing on May 1, I have decided to turn these older pages in to an archive, so you will no longer be able to enter comments. However, you can comment on entries posted after January 1, 2010. Quick linksAdd feedsIndividual JY&A and Medinge Group blogs+ Previous posts |
||
DonateIf you wish to help with my hosting costs, please feel free to donate. |
|||
Copyright ©200210 by Jack Yan & Associates. All rights reserved. Photograph of Jack Yan by Chelfyn Baxter. |