Now that I’m learning a foreign language, I’m regaining my appreciation for how daunting grammar can be. Really. And I know that when you grow up hearing the language spoken one way, it’s sometimes difficult to understand that your dear old mama’s usage wouldn’t pass muster with William Safire. Nevertheless, there are editors in the world, and it really takes a harmonic convergence of tin ears to let this one get through:
Four times in the last 10 years, she and husband, Scott, have uprooted their family and set off for a new, unfamiliar city because on account of his job with Dana Corp.
alex said on October 7, 2003 at 5:27 pm
Nance, I still think it must have been a careless copy editor replacing the words “on account” with “because” and forgetting to delete the former. I seem to see a lot of that kind of thing in the JG.
That, and falling for transparent ploys by the local GOP chair to get his cheap shots at the local Dems into print.
That paper’s been sucking an egg for years and when Knight Ridder takes complete control of it one day soon it won’t be fit for lining a birdcage.
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JGOLDEN said on October 7, 2003 at 5:39 pm
You have it all wrong. It should be “due to because of on account of his job”
MGolden
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JGOLDEN said on October 7, 2003 at 5:39 pm
You have it all wrong. It should be “due to because of on account of his job”
MGolden
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Todd said on October 7, 2003 at 6:29 pm
What’s with the “needs X-ed” thing, anyway? (Yes, Nance, I realize you probably wrote that intentionally.)
Who ever came up with that? (Finally, after six years of marriage, I’ve managed to get my wife to use “needs to be X-ed” or “needs X-ing”.)
Only in Indiana.
(Yes, since this is a grammar pseudo-flame, I expect to have written at least 3.14 grammar mistakes of my own.)
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James Burns said on October 7, 2003 at 8:02 pm
In the South, that’d be, “…and fixin’ to set off for a new, unfamiliar city…”
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Mindy said on October 7, 2003 at 8:06 pm
In his witty little tome Fumblerules, William Safire tells us to “never ever use repetitive redundancies.”
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alex said on October 7, 2003 at 8:23 pm
In what I think was his funniest column ever, William Safire was describing the Supreme Court’s “I know it when I see it” standard for determining what’s art and what’s porn: “It’s not the teat, but the tumidity.”
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Melissa said on October 8, 2003 at 2:27 am
This kind of thing is a regular occurrence in The Oregonian. I have given up blue-penciling their mistakes and mailing them in because it was costing me too much money.
The Oregonian is also famous for ignoring the rule: “Check to see if you any words out”.
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danno said on October 8, 2003 at 10:19 am
I thought this might be interesting:
Subject:Intellesting
Birllaint….
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t
mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt
tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The
rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit
porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef
but the wrod as a wlohe.
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