Knowledge
/ArcaMax
Getting Obsessive About the Possessive
Q. A postcard states that a certain company has "over 50 years' experience" in a certain field. Is the apostrophe after "years" necessary? -- Maureen, via e-mail
A. After over 50 years' experience in the field of grammar and usage, I can firmly answer "yes." By convention, it's customary to describe amounts of time and money by using ...Read more
History Is a 'Foible' Agreed Upon
History repeats itself. After reading these sentences, taken from high school students' history papers and sent to me by teachers, let's hope not.
1. During the Glorious Revolution, Parliament decided to take power away from the thrown. (And soon the king had been overthrown.) 2. The Constitution tried to achieve parody among the states. (...Read more
Was Barbie a Nervous Nellie at the Oscars?
Why is the doll (and movie) called "Barbie"? Why is Nellie nervous, and why is a statuette named Oscar? This column will put you on a first-name basis with terms based on first names.
-- Barbie -- During the 1950s, Ruth and Elliot Handler noticed that their daughter, Barbie, preferred paper dolls resembling adult women to baby dolls. So they ...Read more
The Bridge Between Steel and Art
Three essential tools on every writer's workbench should be contrast, detail and imagery. Watch how skillfully Bill Bryson handles all three devices in his paean to the Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia, from his delightful memoir "In a Sunburned Country."
"The opera house is a splendid edifice and I wish to take nothing away from it, but ...Read more
Bumpkins Get Short End of the Sticks
"Stix Nix Hick Pix," proclaimed a 1935 headline in the entertainment newspaper Variety. Translation: Small-town movie houses don't want films with rural themes.
But why do we call rustics "hicks"?
"Hick" is one of several derogatory terms based on abbreviations of common names. In England during the 1600s, "Hick" was short for "Richard," "...Read more
Share and Snare a 'Like'
Today, two meaty questions involving comparison ...
Jeanette Lendl of Delmont, Pennsylvania, isn't sure about this sentence from an ad: "Ensure has protein, like in meat."
"This sounds stilted to me," she writes. "Is it correct? Should the word be 'as'?"
Advantage Lendl. The use of "like" followed by a prepositional phrase is indeed ...Read more
A 'Soup'er Bowl Packed With Pigskin Palaver
The lingo of American football is a soup bowl bubbling with terms from almost every realm of life, from fighting to food to finance.
Not surprisingly, its lexicon bristles with military terms such as "bomb," "blitz," "trenches" and "shotgun." The Visigoths sacked Rome and spiked the torsos of defending centurions; today's players sack ...Read more
Why the Letter 'B' Is Deeply in 'Debt'
Have you ever wondered why we don't pronounce the "b" in debt, the "c" in indict, the "p" in receipt or the "s" in island?
Blame it on 17th-century British scholars.
During the 1600s, England's intellectuals became besotted with classical languages. These bespectacled, bearded dons began speaking Latin, wearing laurel wreaths and chanting "...Read more
'Recouping' Gives Reader Paws
Today, some questions from readers ...
Curt Guenther of Memphis asked me to vet this sentence describing a Labrador retriever's recovery from health problems: "Hayden has spent the last three months recouping."
Unless Hayden has regained money he lost in the stock market (he must have picked some dogs!), he's better off "recuperating."
"...Read more
A January Jaunt With Blooper Snoopers
The Word Guy Blooper Patrol, which has plenty of cachet, has cashed in on a cache of errors. Can you catch the mistakes?
1. "A cast of characters ... violated and flaunted the law." 2. "Last week, the Pope beautified the Sister." Did he use "mass"cara?
3. "Lawyer Accused Of Hiring Hit Men To Squash Probe." Were they squash racquet-eers?
4. ...Read more
Why a 'Bass' Can Sing or Swim
An amusing compilation titled "Why English Is Hard To Learn" has been bouncing like a beach ball around the internet for years. By citing sentences such as, "A bass was painted on the head of a bass drum," "The wind was too strong to wind the sail," and "Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear," this ditty showcases the linguistic ...Read more
My Teacher Imparted 'Vary' Good Advice
Until my junior year in high school, I thought my writing was pretty hot stuff. Teachers had always commended me for my sound ideas, clear sentences and expressive descriptions.
Then I met Mr. Wittern.
My 11th-grade English teacher, Herman Wittern, was as eloquent and reflective as the 19th-century American poets he loved. In fact, I always ...Read more
Editors, Here's Your 'Write' of Passage
Your the proofreader, er... You're the proofreader! Can you find 28 errors in this passage?
Mistakes in grammer, usage and spelling can seriously effect a writer's credability. Readers loose faith in a writer who makes a high amount of errors. If a writer is all together careless about these kind of slips, readers begin to question the writer...Read more