#wdel

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Patching W/ Confidence: W/Del

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WDEL-TV - Wilmington, DE (NBC, DuMont) - 1954

[ryearick]

A BLAST FROM THE PAST: TIMELESS

The beauty of past "War on Words" columns is that they're timeless. Rules of grammar, usage and pronunciation never (OK, rarely) change. So here's the July 2009 column:

The War on Words

A monthly column in which we attempt, however futilely, to point out some of the most common mistakes in the way Americans speak and write

By Bob Yearick

Compliments of a Friend

“War” has noticed that the adjectives complementary and complimentary and their noun and verb forms are frequently confused.

Complementary has the sense of matching, corresponding, balancing – usually describing something paired with something else, as in, “Each member of the team brings a complementary skill to the task.”

Complimentary, in addition to meaning flattering, means free. Thus the restaurant advertising a “complementary” drink sent the wrong message. While the drink may very well complement the meal, what the restaurant meant to say is that there’s no charge for it.

  Tiresome

            And we are so tired of people who think “them” is an adjective, not a pronoun. “Them people” give us a pain.

            Another tiresome construction: “waiting on” someone, when what is meant is waiting for someone. Very different meanings.

  Media Watch

Ah, those (not “them”) sportscasters -- always good for a couple of daily snafus.

Jeff VanGundy commented that the L. A. Lakers should “relish in their victory over the Denver Nuggets.” No preposition needed, Jeff. You just relish a victory. He probably meant to say they should revel in the victory – preposition needed.

A local radio talk show host, noting an uncharacteristic action by LeBron James: “That was an aberition.” First of all, there is no such word. He meant aberration. Sounds like he subliminally mixed up aberration with apparition, which is a ghost.

And then there was this recent Comcast News headline: “Loose Moose Reeks Havoc on Maine City.” We have no doubt the moose reeked – gave off an odor. But it wreaked havoc on the town. The other common way in which this term is mangled: “wrecked havoc.”

            From a WDEL online report: “A 17-year-old burglary suspect is somewhat worse for the wear after police say he jumped out of a second floor window as they tried to apprehend him.” No biggie, but it’s “the worse for wear.”

    Word of the Month: Bromance

            A close but non-sexual relationship between two or more usually heterosexual men. According to the not-to-be-trusted Wikipedia entry, it was coined in the 1990s, but it’s getting more play now due to the recent spate of “buddy” movies, such as I Love You, Man, Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Hangover.

              Literally of the Month

           Thanks to Shawna Sneath of the O&A staff for this one:

Hi Bob,

I usually don’t pay close attention to . . . well, anything, really. However! Your column came to my mind yesterday morning while listening to 104.5 FM. Apparently their DJ feels that Eddie Vedder tickets for the Tower Theater show are nearly impossible to purchase. Unless, of course, you “literally want to pay an arm and a leg” for them. 

            Body parts for Vedder tix? Seems like a fair exchange.

You say you haven’t yet got your copy of The War on Words? Well, then, go to outandaboutnow.com or Amazon and order it.

[ryearick]

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Before I post another column from the archives, I have to put out a cease and desist order against WDEL, the Wilmington, Del. radio station. If they report one more time that Delaware politicians "literally buried the hatchet" on Return Day in Georgetown, I am going to scream -- scream, do you hear me?

OK, I feel better now. Here's the column from January, 2010:

The War on Words

A monthly column in which we attempt, however futilely, to correct some of the most common mistakes we Americans make in both the written and spoken word.

By Bob Yearick

  Media Watch

From a WIP-AM newscast: “Rumors of a rift between he and Mike Richards were denied by John Stevens.”  

Todd Gold, TV commentator for Comcast.net: “But (Charlie) Gibson went on the record with the Post, telling the paper all the talk about a rift between he and (Diane) Sawyer is bunk.”

Once again, we must point out that prepositions (e.g., between) take the objective case pronoun – him, her, me, us. But as always, he, she, I and we sound so much more correct to the quasi-educated.

    Literally of the Month

CBS broadcaster Vern Lundquist, during the Florida-Alabama football game: “They (Alabama) are literally going to have to cut the head off the snake.”

            For starters, “War” is unsure exactly what that statement means. But we are sure                                              there was no snake on the field, and thus there would be no cutting off of a snake’s head, literally or otherwise.

  Department of Redundancies Dept.

The science of sports statistics continues to evolve, with new terms being added every few years. In baseball, HRR (home run ratio) and OPS (on-base plus slugging) are two of the newest. In football, YAC (yards after catch) is now in vogue. Obviously, Blue White Illustrated, which covers Penn State sports, is still getting used to this stat. Here’s a sentence from a recent issue: “He made a few nice moves after the catch to pick up some YAC yardage.”

Word (OK, term) of the Month: Stalking Horse

1.Something used to cover one’s true purpose; a decoy. 2. A sham candidate put forward to conceal the candidacy of another or to divide the opposition       Miscellany

            Here’s a nomination for most misspelled word: challenge. Amazing how many people make it “challange.”

            The “but yet” construction also seems to be gaining popularity. Example: “Our state’s needs have changed a lot over the past decade, but yet allocation of funds remains the same.” Maybe this should be in our Redundancies Department, because but and yet are synonymous in this construction. Choose one.

Different from, different than: One thing differs from another. Different than is at best colloquial and at worst incorrect.

Heard or seen a good (bad) one lately? Drop us a line at [email protected]. And check out Bob Yearick’s novel, Sawyer, on Amazon or at the publisher’s website: www.bayoakpublishers.com.

[ryearick]

THE WAR CONTINUES

Pet Peeves of Readers

It always amazes me at the range of words and phrases that annoy people – their “pet peeves.” Often, these words or phrases aren’t even wrong, they’re just used too often, or inappropriately. Take, for example, this response I got when in my last Out & About column I asked readers to submit linguistic annoyances:

  I enjoy your column very much, and it has probably helped many people, including me. I have a few "pet" phrases in vogue that irk me. The latest one is "Going forward ", as in “We will be taking a closer look at that mass murderer, going forward". Which is better than doing so "going backward" perhaps? I think '"in the future" works fine, or nothing at all, since the future is implied, and obvious in most cases. On TV, I absolutely cringe when an anchor person watches a dispatch and then says to the person in the field, "Mary, thank you for that". How about simply: "Thank you, Mary". "Thank you for that" has a very weird ring to it, if you consider it -- did Mary give the anchor a bottle of wine, a chocolate, or a hot date, along with her snippet of dispatch? On the political shows, for emphasis the talking heads always use "Look" as in "Look, Chris, Romney is rather clueless", or "Look, Bob, I am being condescending by saying the word " look ", as if you are some kind of unobservant oaf”.

            Speaking of annoying, this reader (and writer) commits the all-too-common mistake of placing periods and commas outside quotation marks. As I have written repeatedly, this is okay if you’re writing for a United Kingdom audience, but here in the good ol’ US of A, periods and commas go inside the quotes. This seems counter-intuitive to most people, and I estimate that about 70 percent of the emails I receive get this wrong. This preponderance of mistakes leads me to predict, in the September issue of O&A, that the UK style will be accepted by all “in the near future.” (Also predicting that “he graduated college” will be an acceptable replacement for “he graduated from college.” I continue to fight the war on words, but sometimes I lose a battle.)

Media Watch

            Just heard on WDEL that Jill Biden is “Delaware’s own second lady.” No, she isn’t. She’s the nation’s second lady. If Delaware has a second lady, it would the wife of Matt Denn, the lieutenant governor. I think the station owes Mrs. Denn an apology.