Raised “American” but may convert to “Logical”

An article in (or is it on?) Slate has hit me to the fact that whole cultures put their periods and commas outside the quote marks. “I’m shocked, relieved and amused all at once”, the blogger said.

Shirt sleeve exasperation

How come my only choices for shirt sleeves are “32-33,” meaning 32, and “34-35,” meaning 35?

Sorry, ‘clean’ is not one of your choices

I know the object of advertising is to make audiences remember and buy the product, and that correct use of language is secondary. But sometimes incorrect use of language can make an ad say the opposite of what was intended. The current ad campaign for Tide detergent features the slogan “Style is an option. Clean [...]

Past-present confusion in headlines makes me tense

A little friendly banter about an article on Slate.

Convicted by the media

Any good copy editor knows that people aren’t “arrested for” doing things — they are arrested “on suspicion of” doing things. Then the courts decide whether the arrested people did the things they are suspected of. It’s bad enough when a person who is ultimately convicted in court is first convicted by the media. But [...]

Scammers’ grammar

It’s offensive enough that e-mail scammers want to dupe me into sending them money. But if they really think I’m going to take this for a legitimate message from UPS, that’s really insulting. From: United Parcel Service [mailto:absolveslun@rgaleatherworks.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:39 AM To: info@adefinancial.com Subject: Fedex Tracking N5421062126 Unfortunately we were not [...]

Makes me want to go there

My friend Gordon Cooper just sent me a copy of his Watkins Glen Tour Guide. I helped with the book in a few ways — mainly by acting as a sounding board when Gordon was making style and organization decisions early on and by line-editing the text as he got ready to go to press [...]

E! News Redundancy

The lead-in for the Hollywood gossip show “E! News” goes as follows: Ryan Seacrest: “We break the news …” Giuliana Rancic: “… before anybody else.” To break a story is to be the first to release it. “Before anybody else” is the only way news can be broken.

Starbucks job poster

Poster on the door at Starbucks: “Opportunities Available.” I know the company is just trying for a more exciting word than “jobs,” but “opportunities” is not a synonym for “jobs.” Jobs are available, therefore opportunities exist.