I May Faint

Who do you suppose wrote this?

"As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma." 

Dept. of Redundancy Dept.

Is there a style change I missed?

Is there a reason we keep getting redundant references on money, like this? This is the third one I've seen in two days.

It asked for $1 million dollars and said "no cops."

Wrong Is Just Wrong

The thing is, there's no good way to say that the robbery went "right" so saying a holdup that turned fatal had "gone wrong" sets up a problem. It's a construction that needs to be avoided.

 

I can think of two outrageous crimes where one or more people have gotten killed after yelling out that he/she recognized the perp. It would not be surprising if this turned out to be the case here. 

 

But who knows.

From the Associated Press

June 19, 2011, 1:57 p.m.

MEDFORD, New York—

A gunman fatally shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.

The massacre happened at about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class town on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.

Reaching the 21st Century

In 2011, why is anyone still using "coed" ?

Cops: We Have "Persons Of Interest" In NY Coed's Disappearance In ...‎ - KTLA.

It's probably time to strike that one from the vocabulary list.

Getting Personal

I welcome me back, isn't that nice of me?

Three language experts have challenged the attempt to smear President Obama for his alleged overuse of  "I," in his statements about the killing of Osama bin Laden.  If you continue to doubt the racial element in some of the criticism of Obama, take a look at the undertone they hear in those criticisms. If you think birther accusations and claims that Obama didn't earn his way into those top schools, hint, hint, then just skip it because this won't convince you of anything.

But otherwise, see John McIntyre, Fev and Mark Liberman. I love it when facts demolish prejudice.

****
Took a very long hiatus because of job demands and while still busy with said job, have managed to squeeze out a little time to come back to this. If there are any remaining readers, well, that would be stunning.

The Freeze Is Coming! The Freeze Is Coming!!

Really? People made all these plans on Monday for something that WON'T happen next year? Must everything include such drama?  I'm not faulting or criticizing those on Social Security, who no doubt could use more money, but am knocking the mindset that produces stories like this.

An analysis of whether the formula written into law that leads to this kind of freeze would be helpful. How about a little comparison to workers who also won't get a pay raise in the coming year?

Senior citizens brace for Social Security freeze (AP) 
 
AP - Seniors prepared to cut back on everything from food to charitable donations to whiskey as word spread Monday that they will have to wait until at least 2012 to see their Social Security checks increase.

Hit job

OK, after about a month off, I'm back, happily employed in the news biz and working with a great bunch of people, a mix of old newspaper hands, web pros and others.

Time to get back to editing talk.

First up this morning is this headline:

Obama Is in the Jaws of Political Death: Can He Survive?

Let me see. His poll numbers are down but not as low as Ronald Reagan's at this point. The House may indeed turn over to Republican control. Maybe even the Senate. Political death?

Then there's the story. Seriously, what reporter regularly refers to "elites" as if he were in a political science class?  Then this:

The misery afflicting the country has no political affiliation. Listen to the voices from this striking TV ad for Rob Portman, the Republican former Congressman and Bush budget director who is running for Senate from Ohio. One woman at a Dayton career fair says starkly, "There are no jobs." A man announces plaintively and with obvious frustration, "I've been looking for a job now for 13 months." Events like this job fair are becoming the grim iconic gatherings of our time, the breadlines for the Obama years.  

This "has no political affiliation" but then consists of quotes from a Republican commercial??

There may well be a good story to be done that assesses the competence of the Obama administration. This isn't it.
No editor should have let this story see the light of day.

Age-Old Questions

 I know we're not supposed to assume anything but this kind of note in an obit drives me crazy (aside from the weird present tense in the last sentence.) Do we really wonder why a 96-year-old has died? And no, I don't know where I'd draw the line on this question.

Kevin McCarthy was 96.
Cape Cod Hospital spokesman Dave Riley says McCarthy died Saturday morning. He won't reveal the cause of death.

Hire Some Editors

I may have said this before.

I have never seen this "concerned for" construction and hope to never again.

Rodrigues' sister laid into the media on Friday, upset that her family is being portrayed as the cause of the accident and not being concerned for.

And speaking of sports: another F! The second web site to drop an F recently and embarrass itself.

Guess the Meaning

Low Scores Dot Course Before 
Hurricane’s Edge Visits Deutsche Bank

What? a headline is supposed to inform, though I suppose there's a counterargument that says if it's bad enough to make you go read the story, that works, too. In this case, the headline referred to golfers in a tournament sponsored by a bank were recording low scores as the hurricane approached.

But the Times' head made mine ache.

Tidbits

Jon Winokur offers up a list of the best books for writers.

And the Chicago Manual of Style makes some changes.

Just in Time for School