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Not once have I felt inclined to abandon pedantry; the passing years inevitably engender the feeling that everything is going to/has gone to, the dogs.
When I suggested to my erstwhile girlfriend that pedantry is the route to insanity, she replied "it's the route to my heart" So much for that.
Exasperated by constant media references to "cooler temperatures", "fastest time", grinding my teeth when I hear the word "controversy" mispronounced and so on; the fact is that the "going to the dogs" provides endless entertainment or at least stimulation, for the pedant.
As no doubt many did during the past fortnight, I watched some of the coverage of the Tennis Championships from Wimbledon. The commentators (John McEnroe is the best) appear to have finally abandoned the appalling expression "trails" as e.g. "He is trailing by two sets to love" grrr, but now they have the appalling habit of saying for example "He is love-forty down" or even worse, "he was fifteen-forty down on his service"
What's the matter with these people?
1) The server's score is always given first
2) If the first number is smaller than the second then obviously the server is "down."
3) "On his service" is therefore superfluous and profoundly irritating as indeed is the word "down."
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Until the next time.
4 comments:
...and then there is the apostrophe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXP_pr7np-o
Excellent and exciting bass-playing.
Apostrophe? Aaarrggh I have seen "potato's" and "battery's" amongst other gems.
And then there is the appallingly-neglected hyphen, another aspect that sends up the blood-pressure...
exactly..for pedants.........
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396612_352931791384397_1845979916_n.jpg
"[...] another aspect that sends up the blood pressure "
Of course I should have started with the phrase "Speaking from my habitual - indeed normal -pedantic position..." But in retrospect I suppose that that might have been taken as read.
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