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I just read about this on the website for the great NPR program http://waitwait.npr.org
Choice bans include:
"Two to one margin†. . . “Two to one†is a ratio, not a margin. A margin is measured in points. It's not a ratio.
5 a.m. in the morning
Close proximity
Completely destroyed, completely abolished, completely finished or any other completely redundant use
False pretenses
Shower activity
We'll be right back
I sympathize with him on reducing redundancies, but some things are a bit crazy. This is where pet peeves meet corporate power.
Wow. Those aren't pet peeves: that's a menagerie, an abattoir, a farm, a zoo, and a circus of peeves. And you picked some of the most legitimate of the bunch.
Honestly — "all of you"; "allegations"; "incarcerated"; "officials"; "pedestrian"; "really".
Really?
My favorite is the -- let's be charitable -- typo:
Behind the podium (you mean lecturn) [sic]
Some brat ("spoiled brat" should be on the list) grew up and made a list. Other networks are sure to reap the reward of real talent as they flee a management that is destined to fail.
Is "close proximity" redundant because "far proximity" is contradictory?
To me, the word "close" in the phrase is meaningful because "in proximity" seems broad:
* In the same (non-tiny) room as me --> "in proximity"
* Standing a few inches from me --> "in close proximity"
BTW, "5 a.m. in the morning" totally bugs. God bless the day I can stop noticing it.
Speaking of "proximity," does anyone know whether 3+ things can be "proximal"? I usually think of "proximal" as being a vector, so when I hear of 3+ things being "proximal" I start spinning my wheels out seeking directionality.
Ron Draney said:
I suppose announcer will have to start enunciating more carefully when they announce web addresses: "dub-bull-yoo-dub-bull-yoo-dub-bull-yoo".
Or that can start saying "wuh-wuh-wuh" and see if he comes out with a new list.
ROFL! Nice one!
I knew someone who used "dub-dub-dub," which was pretty clear but... jaRgonY.
corinthian said:
Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels has issued a list of 119 words he does not want said by anchors or reporters on his radio station WGN-AM.
Just finished reading "Ambrose Bierce's Write it Right", by Jan Freeman. Michaels is following in a long and time-honored tradition of editors. Freeman mentions a number of 19th-century peevologists, including William Cullen Bryant of the New York Evening Post, who created an "Index Expurgatorius" ca. 1870.
A copy of the list can be viewed here: http://books.google.com/books?id=PqA4AAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA386&ots=wqgFIbhbs-&dq=index%20expurgatorius%20bryant&pg=PA386#v=onepage&q=index%20expurgatorius%20bryant&f=false
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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