Messages

1

English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: May 13, 2010, 10:41:04 AM »

Sports journalism continues to keep the bar quite low:

He was the 10th ranked player in the state of Virginia, but his All State recognition came on defense where he possessed all of the intangibles including a 4.4 forty time.

--------------

Since I don't know how obvious it is to non-sports fans, something like a 40 yard dash time is decidedly tangible. Intangibles are things like leadership ability, heart, and work ethic.

2

English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: May 28, 2008, 01:02:17 PM »

Size is only confusing when you're talking about 3-dimensional bodies, because it could either refer to area or volume. When it's referring to a 2-dimensional body I don't see what else it could reasonably be inferred to mean.

Diameter.

You know that a football field is rectangular, right?  You're saying that he might have meant diameter?  Or just disputing my general statement?

If the latter, I'll amend to say 'rectangular 2-dimensional bodies'.

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English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: May 28, 2008, 12:14:15 PM »

Agreed.  I don't think that makes it excusable, though.  This guy is a professional sports journalist working for the premiere sports magazine in the world.  Plus he has an editor.

Size is only confusing when you're talking about 3-dimensional bodies, because it could either refer to area or volume.  When it's referring to a 2-dimensional body I don't see what else it could reasonably be inferred to mean.

4

English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: May 28, 2008, 12:10:27 PM »

Arena ball isn't the NFL: the field is 28 yards wide and 50 yards long, roughly half the size of an NFL field...

I get that very few writers have math backgrounds, but they should've all taken geometry.

5

English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: April 01, 2008, 11:21:37 PM »

That's hilarious, Tante.

-------------------

From the Sports section of the Times-Picayune two days ago:

"Chris Paul averaged 20 points, 9 assists, and 3 steals in the months of February and December, becoming the first player to ever average those numbers in consecutive months."

 >.<  

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English & Linguistics / You keep using that word. I do not think

« on: December 12, 2007, 02:31:17 PM »

The strange thing, though, is that I rarely saw that misspelling before the marketing of the scooter.  In the last two years I've seen it spelled incorrectly more than correctly.

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English & Linguistics / You keep using that word. I do not think

« on: December 12, 2007, 01:43:45 PM »

I have seen many, many occurences of 'segway' in place of 'segue' in the last six months in various internet communities.

*groan*

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English & Linguistics / Language Death

« on: December 03, 2007, 02:00:45 PM »

For you, probably (and by that I mean 'definitely').  For me, doubtful.  I love evolution, and I don't see any reason why I wouldn't expect survival of the fittest to apply to my language along with everyone else's.  Of course, it's moot, since we don't really know how I'd react if it was my language and we're not likely to find out anytime soon.

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English & Linguistics / Language Death

« on: December 03, 2007, 12:03:06 PM »

If we were about to lose our very last language it would be a cause for panic (or extreme celebration because we mutated into telepaths), but since we have plenty left it doesn't really bother me.

I actually think it's an advancement -- the world is shrinking.  I can't wait until we all speak Standard.  Or Common.  Or whatever else we decide to call English when it's the Highlander of languages here in about 50 years.

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English & Linguistics / The random etymology of the day

« on: November 12, 2007, 12:06:02 PM »

'Tool' as slang for a guy's equipment isn't a new thing.  Not quite the same usage as what we're talking about here, though.  Just like when you call someone a dick you don't literally mean it.

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English & Linguistics / The random etymology of the day

« on: November 12, 2007, 11:49:45 AM »

Urban dictionary has it.  I've been hearing it used as slang for at least 8 or 9 years (I never heard it in high school, but I did in college).

I've recently heard it as a verb (wow, you totally tooled that guy*).

*which, in that context, basically means to make him look foolish.

12

English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: September 04, 2007, 12:04:06 PM »

They're compiled by someone else, but it's a rare person in sports who doesn't track field goal percentage, PPG, YPC, batting average, ERA, free throw percentage, winning percentage, turnover ration, A:T ratio, etc.

I got the joke, though.

13

English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: September 04, 2007, 10:52:43 AM »

I might agree with part A) of that statement, but there's no popular American sport that I'm aware of that doesn't heavily rely on math and numbers to track player progression/value.

14

English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: September 04, 2007, 08:12:21 AM »

From the Times-Picayune today:

"In three quarters of work, Manning completed 20 of 25 passes (66.7 percent) for 314 yards and touchdowns of 17, 14, 79, 12, 32 and 11 yards."

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And in my hometown paper this weekend, there was a special section on education.

The section heading read (in giant black type)  "EDCUATION".

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English & Linguistics / The random etymology of the day

« on: August 15, 2007, 11:58:29 AM »

The force is strong with Noemon's subconscious.

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English & Linguistics / Poetry and you

« on: July 03, 2007, 11:46:21 AM »

I was never so cliche as to produce ansty teenage poetry.  Probably because, like Porter, I never learned to appreciate it.

I suppose it's mildly ironic that I now write songs (which I tend to think are full of cliches).  Dammit, brevity is hard!  Poetry would've been good practice for me.

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English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: June 26, 2007, 05:15:37 PM »

A contraction with what as the second word?

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English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: June 26, 2007, 10:56:45 AM »

One of my friends sent me a link to an architect's website.  Pretty professionally done, nice page, good pictures, and a glaring grammatical error in one of the four main menu items.

Home
Portfolio
Designer Bio's
About Us

 >.<  

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English & Linguistics / The random etymology of the day

« on: June 26, 2007, 10:55:08 AM »

Every wikipedia article.

And the military books I've read (non-fiction as well as fiction) say that the clock/color system is still very much in use in special-ops ground actions.  YMMV.

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English & Linguistics / MS Word Change Tracking

« on: June 07, 2007, 11:16:37 AM »

Which is why I posted it in this thread.

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English & Linguistics / MS Word Change Tracking

« on: June 07, 2007, 07:55:44 AM »

But the 'to who...' just reads weird.

I've decided I ignored that rule on purpose, even though I didn't know it at the time.

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English & Linguistics / MS Word Change Tracking

« on: June 07, 2007, 07:42:50 AM »

How so?

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English & Linguistics / MS Word Change Tracking

« on: June 07, 2007, 06:52:16 AM »

Please forward this email to whomever is in charge of scheduling this.

Outlook's grammar checker wanted me to replace 'whomever' in this sentence
with 'whoever'.

   

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English & Linguistics / I hate journalistic writing

« on: May 30, 2007, 02:01:13 PM »

You call that easy?!  Clearly you're a much more accomplished photoshopper than I.  

But yeah, that Men's Fitness cover is ridiculous.

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English & Linguistics / Spanned from

« on: May 29, 2007, 03:00:54 PM »

It's the 'spanned from' that's weird, if you ask me.

If the sentence read, "Construction spanned thirty years, from 1732-1762" it wouldn't seem so weird.  I think I expect 'spanned' to be followed by a unit of some sort (either time or distance) and not a preposition.