I feel that I am going to need a whole page to vent about things like mutilation of the English language, crazy politicians and bad drivers. No time like the present to get started:
1: The increasingly frequent incorrect use of “in lieu of.” PEOPLE! It simply means “instead of.” It does NOT mean “because of.” I just received an e-mail from a fellow Rotarian and dentist (so the guy has had many years of schooling) with the statement, “We will be donating the full amount in lieu of the donor dropping out. “ ARG. The donor has dropped out. Therefore we have to donate the full amount. This is the complete opposite of the correct use of “in lieu of”. Sorry for shouting but this ticks me off!
2. The little network logos that are in the lower right of the TV screen. They started out fairly inobtrusive, and somewhat helpful in figuring out what channel you are on if you haven’t memorized the list and don’t have a service with an “info” button. But they’ve gotten bigger, and more annoying, and now - ten times worse - are the ads that appear randomly on the left side of the screen, animated and even noisy. GAAHAHHH I just want to watch my show – leave me alone.
3. This is a hard one to explain, but it’s a turn of phrase that sportscasters are using more and more frequently: “If I’m the Seattle Mariners I’m going to try to bunt here.” It was bad enough when they said, “If I’m the batter right now, I’m going to try to bunt.” At least that made some sort of sense, although why they couldn’t just say, “If I were Ichiro I’d try to bunt here,” or even the simple straightforward, “I think Ichiro should bunt.” But now some of these broadcasters think that they can somehow magically become an entire team.
4. On a similar theme, there is the almost constant use by interviewers, in both sports and general news, of the question, “How nervous are you about the upcoming game? How important was it for you to win this game?” In my mind, a question starting with “how” is asking for an answer in terms of quantity. How nervous are you? Very? Not so? About 6 out of 10? Why not just ask, “Are you nervous?”
