EDITING THE WORLD

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

As a writer, I tend to edit the world. I see misuses or misspellings of words whether I want to or not. When I see, for instance, Rich Johnston–in his latest “Lying in the Gutters”–use the phrase “reign it in” instead of the correct “rein it in,” I just shake my head and sigh.

But every so often I notice stuff that really just drives me nuts. For instance, in checking my PO box, I received a flier from the Bayport Library system. What do they advertise as a movie they’re going to be running this month?

“Oaklahoma!”

Now if they’d advertised “South Pasific” or “Carosel,” it would merely be annoying. But “Oklahoma!” features a title song that SPELLS THE ÐÃMNÊÐ TITLE.

Oh brother.

PAD

66 comments on “EDITING THE WORLD”

  2. Could’ve and Should’ve aren’t contractions for Could of and Should of. They’re contractions fro could have and should have. Technically, it should be could”ve and should”ve, but people haven’t used the double apostrophes in centuries.

    The only thing as bad as irregardless is the “I could have cared less” when people mean “I couldn’t have cared less”

    “I could have cared less” is half-hearted praise, not condemnation.

  3. Yes, I am aware of the contractions. I just re-read my post and can see that I was not clear about my point.

    I was not, however, aware of the double apostrophe usage. Th at little nugget of information will stick with until it comes up on a game show and I condemn the contestant for not knowing about it. 😉

  4. In response to Ali’s Superboy cover:

    Around the same time, Batman #331 featured “The Electroutioner” (sorry, no link).

    Peter, surely you are familiar with the LIRR’s usage of platform as a verb–as in, “Only the first 6 cars of this train will Platform at Valley Stream.” That drives me nuts.

  5. Aoccdrnig to 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.

  6. Ha! Totally right (or is that “write”?)! No problems at all reading the above. I used to be a nitpicker, but my own hypocrisy got to me.

    “Irregardless” does bother me no end, though.

  7. lose vs loose.

    Loose = “my pants are loose”. “The lion is loose.”

    NOT I hope to loose weight.

    Lose = “I hope to lose weight”.

    ARGH! Drives me nuts.

  8. StarWolf: What about a major chain which mangles the language for the sake of being ‘cute’? “Kidz” and “Mark’s Work Wearhouse” come to mind…

    There’s a great one here in Augusta; it’s not actually a misspelling so much as it is a misthinking. We’ve got a thrift store that specializes in children’s clothing called “kidsexchange”… all one word, with no spacing, capitalization or apostrophe.

    One of my friends used to call them up and ask if he could change his little boy into a little girl.

    tOjb

  10. >Sounds like French where all too

    >many supposedly literate people

    >have taken “ma tante” (my aunt)

    >and made a word out of it such

    >that they now refer to “ma

    >matante.” Feh.

    That kind of thing’s not so unusual. The word “umpire” derives from “a noumpere,” originally from the french “non pere”.

    http://www.bartleby.com/61/71/U0017100.html

  11. I tend to quibble over small grammatical details myself, however, there’s always a few that come back and bite me. When I’m typing fast on a topic to get the thoughts out I think the the one that makes me stumble the most is “it’s” versus “its”.

    Too bad blogs don’t have grammar check 🙂

  12. I’m not an editor nor a professional typist, and neither am I a spelling cop so, needless to say, I make tons of errors.

    Except of course when I’m writing my own fanfic. 🙂

  13. We all slip. I tend to fall halfway down the cliff most Mondays.

    Oh, and unless Michael Howard has a thing about personal space, “Just a whole bunch of people who don’t like you getting up close and personal and telling you exactly what you’re doing wrong, and you have to loudly and articulately defend your positions” could really do with a comma between ‘you’ and ‘getting’…

  14. Thanks to online film/comic reviewers, I now have a deep hatred for all things “cliched.” My loathing is so dark as to be “noiry.” This is a far more effective campaign of terror than any of that childish “freedom fries” nonsense.

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