Word Watch, Part Three
© Adam Granger
A Pastiche of Misuses
Welcome to the third installment of Word Watch. This time, I offer a variety of mostly-amusing misuses.
When I worked in the box office of the Guthrie Theater in 1975, just before I went to play guitar for Garrison Keillor, people would call and ask about season's tickets, thus combining season's greetings with season tickets.
Until I read a history of time a few years ago, I was guilty of saying Daylight Savings Time, but the correct name is Daylight Saving Time.
I had a neighbor who said, “You know what I'm gonna get for the front yard next Christmas? I'm gonna get one of them activity scenes.”
One of our local news anchors (who should know better) reported that an injured peregrine falcon had been taken to the University of Minnesota's Rapture Center. I called them up and suggested that they might want to let the poor bird get well first.
While working for the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office I came across a file about a shooting. During the police interview, one of the witnesses said, “Eddie came into the kitchen and fired the gun, and the bullet ramshackled off the mausoleum.” It took further questioning to determine that Eddie came into the kitchen and fired the gun, and the bullet ricocheted off the linoleum.
I heard someone say, “It's no sweat off my nose”, and I knew what he meant.
I had a friend who used to say “by far and large”.
“Irregardless” is becoming increasingly common.
Well, it's all okay, and we're all equally culpable for straying from the grammatical straight and narrow (which, by the way, I've heard as "Straightened Arrow") now and then, so let's just keep enjoying ourselves when we talk and think about the mother tongue.
Welcome to the third installment of Word Watch. This time, I offer a variety of mostly-amusing misuses.
When I worked in the box office of the Guthrie Theater in 1975, just before I went to play guitar for Garrison Keillor, people would call and ask about season's tickets, thus combining season's greetings with season tickets.
Until I read a history of time a few years ago, I was guilty of saying Daylight Savings Time, but the correct name is Daylight Saving Time.
I had a neighbor who said, “You know what I'm gonna get for the front yard next Christmas? I'm gonna get one of them activity scenes.”
One of our local news anchors (who should know better) reported that an injured peregrine falcon had been taken to the University of Minnesota's Rapture Center. I called them up and suggested that they might want to let the poor bird get well first.
While working for the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office I came across a file about a shooting. During the police interview, one of the witnesses said, “Eddie came into the kitchen and fired the gun, and the bullet ramshackled off the mausoleum.” It took further questioning to determine that Eddie came into the kitchen and fired the gun, and the bullet ricocheted off the linoleum.
I heard someone say, “It's no sweat off my nose”, and I knew what he meant.
I had a friend who used to say “by far and large”.
“Irregardless” is becoming increasingly common.
Well, it's all okay, and we're all equally culpable for straying from the grammatical straight and narrow (which, by the way, I've heard as "Straightened Arrow") now and then, so let's just keep enjoying ourselves when we talk and think about the mother tongue.
