More from the press
Legislature mulls.
We covered this back in October 2022. By definition, destiny is something over which you have no control.
Dr. Baruch Kahana
This suggests it was the same shark both times, which is possible, but there’s no way to know. If it was, “bit by sharks” also might be wrong. How about: “Two suffer shark bites.” Also: In Eliot’s long career, he fought against use of “attack,” which really is a carryover from a certain blockbuster movie. Shark scholars will tell you nearly all shark encounters with humans are mistakes or accidental. “Attack” is sensational and unnecessarily scares people.
We covered this as well, in September 2021. You can’t force a dog to be euthanized. It’s a dog. You force people to euthanize it.
This is a two-fer. We’ll take the second one first. This is apples and oranges! We covered this in November 2021. Maine’s a state. Canada’s a country. Say “Maine-New Brunswick border” or “U.S.-Canada border.” As for the first one: We’ve said this a thousand times. Impact is not a verb!!!!!
Less for volume, fewer for count. So, “fewer risks.” And the entire headline is a bit clunky. How about, “Taking smaller doses of omeprazole means fewer long-term risks.” (Disclosure: Eliot, as reporter, never wrote headlines, except to suggest ones. Lou Ann, on the copy desk, wrote thousands. It’s not that easy.)
We’ve covered this before. The writer is counseling you to plan ahead. So the first sentence should read, “Will you outlive your savings?”
And we go to the video archives for Segment 65: Still more homophones! https://youtu.be/crvm8yAcIhQ?si=tWVoqDWT6QbNuw-4
Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong," features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police:” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we can credit you properly. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com
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