07.25.08
Word Spotting, Part II
Miscellaneous observations with the cynical goal of bamboozling you into thinking that I’m doing some actual writing and not just tossing unfinished notes at you:
- Quoted in a news story: “It’s just a very unfortunate tragedy.” Not many tragedies are fortunate.
- In an early part of a news story: “there are two opinions about the untimely death of . . .” If any given death were “timely,” now that would be news.
- Seems I spend too much time commuting (and watching the needle on the gas gauge appear to not descend, but topple, even at 30 miles a gallon highway)—overheard in a radio commercial: “Are you tired of car dealers treating you like a puppet on a string?” Yes! Treat me like a puppet without a string! What does the phrase “on a string” add, other than a visual image? And an incorrect image, at that, as marionettes have multiple strings, and hand puppets have no strings.
- Spotted in a press release: “Handling over 39,737 online transactions annually . . .” Wouldn’t “over 39,737″ be, um, 39,738? Matching the vague with the specific is mentally jarring, and slows reading. “Odd” numbers, indeed.
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