#todd blackledge

Todd Blackledge: The Six W’s

“The Six W’s: Work will win when wishing won’t.”

—Todd Blackledge.

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Here's the column from the January 2012 issue of Out & About Magazine:

The War on Words

By Bob Yearick

A monthly column in which we attempt, however futilely, to correct some of the most common mistakes we Americans make in both the written and spoken word.

Literally of the Month

Mika Brezinski, she of MSNBC “Morning Joe” fame, was literal-ing all over a recent broadcast. Example: “Newt Gingrich is literally on his high horse.” Reminder to Mika: Literally means “actually, really.” Given his considerable girth, I would hope that Newt does not ride horses, high or otherwise.

Penn State Fallout

One upside (?) of the Sandusky scandal at my alma mater is that it has produced some fodder for “War.” To wit:

 The usually impeccable Time magazine joined countless callers to sports talk shows in misusing “alumni.” In an article skewering Penn State, Time reported: “Matt Paknis, like Paterno an alumni of Brown University …” It’s alumnus for male graduates, as we have pointed out several times. A woman would be an alumna. All women graduates are alumnae, the combined body of graduates are alumni, as are male graduates as a group. Bottom line: an individual is never an alumni.

            A friend overheard a student refer to the “alleged allegations” against Sandusky. Talk about redundant redundancies.

            And finally, another usually pristinely-edited publication, The New York Times, referred to Penn State as “Penn” twice – once in the headline and once in the body of Maureen Dowd’s column. Needless to say, Penn grads were quick to point out the difference.

Media Watch

The apostrophe fairy was loose again at Spark, leaving one random dropping at the end of noggin, as in “Keep your noggin’ warm . . .” thus incorrectly implying that the actual word – a synonym for head -- is “nogging.”

Also, in a movie review, the weekly that covers the local young adult entertainment scene reported that “Maria Anna Mozart was apparently quite the musician until her little brother showed up on the scene and regulated her to become background music.”

The word the reviewer should have used is relegated, and this unwieldy phrase should have read “relegated her to background music.”

Department of Redundancies Dept.

            Todd Blackledge, college football analyst, recently noted that one team was trying to force the opposing quarterback into making “an errant mistake.” Ah, those network sports analysts. Remember baseball’s Tim McCarver saying that the Phillies had come off “a respite of rest”?

  Quash/Squash

            We heard someone refer to a rumor that had been “squashed.” You quash rumors, hopes, aspirations. You squash insects.

Most Misused Punctuation Mark?

            War has always claimed that the apostrophe is the most misused punctuation mark, and we still hold to that principal, mainly because people insist on using it to form plurals. But we think a close second would be placing the period and comma outside quotation marks. It seems to be universal, especially in emails and texts. We will grant that it may seem counterintuitive to write “He went to the store.” In England, in fact, that would be correct. But we’re in the good ‘ol USA, so make sure to put periods and commas inside the quotes!

Word of the Month

equable

Pronounced EK-wuh-buhl, it’s an adjective meaning not easily upset, tranquil.

    Bonus Word of the Month

verisimilitude

Pronouncedver-uh-si-MIL-i-tood, it’s a noun meaning the quality of appearing true or real, or something that has that appearance.

    Seen or heard a good (bad) one lately? Send your candidates to [email protected].