Readers write. They challenge what I’ve written, raise questions about words, complain about what they’ve heard on newscasts. So far, no threats.
Rex Bossert, editor-in-chief of National Law Journal, e-mailed me about the widespread use of hot-button issue. He said it’s not only a cliché but is also meaningless. And he asked, What is a hot button? I don’t know. Maybe the language heavyweights haven’t weighed in on it because they don’t see it as a hot-button issue.
David M. Lawrence, a journalist in Mechanicsville, Virginia, wrote that tsunami is both singular and plural. I told him I use tsunami only as a singular, adding, “If anyone objects, I’ll say, ‘So tsu me.’ ” To which he retorted, “If they do tsu you, you can throw a Hsu at them.”
Ray Weiss, the first executive producer of the “MacNeil/Lehrer Report,” told of hearing this news promo not too long ago on WNBC-TV, New York City: “The oldest woman in America gives birth to twins at eleven.” But she wasn’t the oldest woman in America; she was the oldest to give birth. And she didn’t do it at 11.
An announcement in my mailbox from California State University, Chico, usually just called Chico, made me wonder: does California also have a Harpo and Groucho?
Ron R. Rahorn reported a redundancy he hadn’t run into before: “nocturnal thunderstorms tonight.” Ron, an academic director at the Defense Information School, says he doesn’t consider nocturnal a word most people would use in everyday — or everynight — conversation. And he asked, “Am I on or off target?” Right on.
Gary Hallock told me of a line in an NPR story about the homeless: “Squatting on private and public property is a long-standing tradition in Brazilian society.” (Aug. 23, 2004.)
Squatting and standing?
Rohan Bridge, a TV news producer in Australia, mocked NBC’s “Nightly News” and its fondness for tonight: “A couple from tonight’s broadcast tonight: “ ‘NBC News In Depth tonight, some horrifying revelations tonight about the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.’ Two in one sentence, a record even for them.”
He then quoted another anchor lead-in from that night’s newscast: “Then there is Iraq tonight. You’ve heard all the talk about the upcoming vote on the constitution there. Well, tonight there is a compromise, which means this won’t be the last vote. They can vote again in the spring. In that nation, this is a breakthrough, as we hear tonight [Oct. 12] from NBC’s…” Bridge added sarcastically: “Back to one [tonight] per sentence. Much better.”
After I wrote that speakers stand on a podium and speak at a lectern, Arun K. Das, a newswriter and copy editor at WNYW-TV, New York City, said some dictionaries list lectern as a synonym for podium. All I can say, Arun, is that they’re errin’. Yes, even my favorite, the “American Heritage Dictionary,” offers lectern as a synonym for podium. But Bryan Garner says, in “Garner’s Modern American Usage,” the use of podium to mean lectern “once widely condemned as a misuse, has become commonplace.” Even so, he warns, “Careful writers should avoid it.”
Speaking of avoid, let’s speak of avoid. And if you ever use a transition like that and I hear about it, I’ll avoid you. After I quoted The New York Times stylebook in an article, “Avoid the reason is because and the reason why,” William Weinbaum, a producer at ESPN, wrote that his mother, Alice, said avoid in that sentence should be do not use. She said it’s a case of prohibition, not volition. Prohibition makes reason is because and reason why absolute no-no’s, not just something to steer clear of.
Weinbaum, no mean grammarian himself, is an owl-eared and eagle-eyed spotter. He told me that on CBS’s Army-Navy football telecast Dec. 3, the color commentator criticized Army’s decision to punt rather than run a play against Navy on fourth-and-one, then said (three times), “I would’ve went for it.” Would’ve went is a barbarism. What he should’ve gone for is coaching in English.
Peter Zollman, a Poynter E-Media Tidbits contributor and consultant in interactive media, asks, “Can you get people to do away with the overblown, incessant hype about middling stories that are relatively meaningless in the overall scheme of life?”
Peter, I keep trying.
Mervin Block, a newswriting coach, is the author of “Writing Broadcast News — Shorter, Sharper Stronger.” His tips and articles are at http://www.mervinblock.com. You can reach him (or sign up for his free tips list) at merblo@aol.com. You can read a longer version of this article at MervinBlock.com/mailbox.html.
