Among the many things that annoy me these days is the tendency to refer to the slash (/) as a forward slash. Nope. It’s just a slash. Or a virgule, if you wanna get technical.
Pet Peeve
Pet Peeves – Revelations
The final book of the New Testament is called The Revelation to John, The Revelation of John, or simply Revelation. I’ve also seen it rendered as The Revelation of St. John the Divine. But notice what all these titles have in common: the word Revelation is singular. And yet I’m constantly hearing it referred to as Revelations … Continue reading Pet Peeves – Revelations
Pet Peeves – Pre-
This program has been pre-recorded. How is that statement different from this one? This program has been recorded. What meaning does the “pre-” confer that the simple use of the word “recorded” doesn’t? Similarly, why does everyone talk about “pre-existing” conditions when “existing” conditions works just fine? Yes, I know, English isn’t a logical language … Continue reading Pet Peeves – Pre-
Pet Peeves – Forté
A phrase that I often hear uttered goes something like that is not my forté where forté is pronounced for-tay. This is wrong on so many different levels, well, at least two, or possibly three, depending on how one counts. First of all, the Italian forte doesn’t require the diacritical marking over the e, it should simply be spelled forte. … Continue reading Pet Peeves – Forté
Is Rick Hard?
One of my pet peeves is the way so many English speakers pronounce the German name Richard, as in the first name of two of my favorite composers, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. The German language ch “is pronounced as a rasping sound made in the back of the mouth something like clearing the throat … Continue reading Is Rick Hard?
Please Stop!
View fullsize On Scriptnotes Episode 412: Writing About Mental Health and Addiction, John August initiated a new feature, which you can hear by following that link and listening to the whole episode (which I encourage you to do because it’s a great episode), or you can just listen to this excerpt: Here’s the excerpt from … Continue reading Please Stop!
Another Pet Peeve
View fullsize The Chernobyl mini-series was nominated for 11 well-deserved Emmy Awards. One of the things that used to annoy me about my co-workers was when they would complain about someone in another office being promoted.“He’s not qualified,” they would chorus. “How could they pick him?”To which I would counter with: “You know who was … Continue reading Another Pet Peeve