Hopefully,* People Will Read This Essay on Grammar

8/2/2020

One of my favorite e-mail correspondents is Bill Lucey, a journalist and baseball fanatic in Cleveland. (We have never met.)
Occasionally, Lucey writes a blog, but he goes beyond the stereotype of the guy-in-underwear-slapping-together-a-pronunciamento.
He actually contacts experts for their opinions. The gall of him, working at his blog.
His latest is a very well-written look at the acceptance of the word "irregardless" by an alleged authority in grammar. He writes about other innovations, including one taking place in Major League Baseball is this very shaky season.
Ladies and gentlemen, readers of all ages, please open the following link and read Bill Lucey's erudite essay on the dumbing down of grammar:
https://www.dailynewsgems.com/2020/08/due-to-popular-use-irregardless-now-a-word.html?fbclid=IwAR3KVy2cU0t54EnHZ1QlNKmzxe18NmFLXNpRytg6-2FnSrmFtEFqoGPLC90
* * *
*- My little joke. One of my pet peeves is the misuse of the word "hopefully," particularly by sports broadcasters, but also by many people who speak in public.

* * *
And while you're at it, check out this site for very short plays. This one is by my friend Altenir Silva, from Rio and Lisbon, Yankee fan, writer in English, frequent presence on this site. He has written a shortie about Godot, as performed by Abbot and Costello. Honest. Of course, it has allusions to baseball. I told you, he's a Yankee fan.
The link:
https://www.scene4.com/0820/altenirsilva0820.html

Marty Appel

8/2/2020 09:10:51 pm

My pet peeve is using “the late” when referring to something done by someone who is now departed. He wasn’t “the late” when the moment happened! The Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t written by the late Abe Lincoln.

bruce picken

8/3/2020 04:39:30 pm

marty,

agree, but people are saying it was actually written by donald trump.

bruce

bruce picken

8/3/2020 01:25:23 am

george,

irregardless is an abomination but seems to have reached the common usage defense stage.

there is an americanism that makes me batty--good used as an adverb of manner instead of well.

seems to cross education and class lines.

i'm not sure what mrs sheppard woulda said if she heard any of her students say 'snuck' at greensville school.

it'd be the same as saying, 'marg brung mine this morning'.......

but snuck seems to be snucking over your northern border into that there national security threat to the usa.

bruce

Altenir Silva

8/3/2020 11:52:34 am

Dear George,

First of all, thanks a lot for showing it on your blog. I really appreciate it. I read the article by Bill Lucey. It’s very interesting about the word ‘irregardless’.

And, thank you very much for bringing “hopefully" into the debate. Very funny.

Best/Altenir

DELETE

Alan Rubin link

8/3/2020 03:06:21 pm

Altenir-

I forgot to complement you on your Abbott and Costello piece. I grew up listening and watching them.

It is said that there are only about 200 vaudeville routines which were know by all vaudevillians, but know one did them as well as Abbott and Costello.

Costello was from Patterson, NJ and a great athlete. He once made over 300 free throws in a row, which may still be a record.

Alan Rubin link

8/3/2020 02:51:07 pm

I am a world class incompetent when it came to English in high school and throughout life. One of the few things that I knew with confidence was that "irregardless" was not to be used.

It often takes me a few tries to get close enough for spellcheck to work.

Based upon this solid background, I have begun working on a book about soccer goalkeeping. One of my inspirations for this is "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth.

One of her challenges in the book to to pick a difficult project on work on it for at least a year and no more than two.

I'll be 86 this August 16 and that will be my mental start date.

"irregardless" of the advice of our leader, wear masks, social distance and stay well.

Altenir Silva

8/3/2020 03:49:33 pm

Dear Alan,
Thank you very much. It's my tribute for all three: Abbott, Costello, and Beckett. They never met, but it would be magic if they would have a meeting.
Be well/Altenir

bruce picken

8/3/2020 04:43:59 pm

alan,

i'm sure your incompetence was endearing and you done good in the long run.

my final report card in first year in grade 9, i got 44 in english, 18 in history, failed seven of eight subjects, had 39.9% which included an 80 in typing--the only subject i passed.

took me four years to successfully finish off grades 9&10 before i decided i'd had enough.

went to university full time at 31. finished with the highest marks--or so i was told, in the history department second semester my first year.

also spent a number of years as a reporter and in charge of media relations, public relations, annual report and special events at a college plus some time as a writer at a university.

ya never know.

i notice your 43rd birthday was the same day elvis fell from his throne and departed for rock&roll heaven.

bruce
bruce

John Jeansonne link

8/3/2020 04:18:33 pm

Every semester, I am hopeful that the knuckleheads learn something form this link....

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk03MH_XAncehpH85YhA_sfhCPI6nhg%3A1596485735009&source=hp&ei=ZnAoX9iROs3AytMP-PyZqAI&q=word+crimes&oq=word+crimes&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIICC4QsQMQkwIyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAA6BwguECcQkwI6BAguECc6CAgAELEDEIMBOgsILhCxAxDHARCjAjoFCAAQsQM6CAguEMcBEKMCOgQIIxAnOgUIABCRAjoECAAQQzoKCC4QxwEQowIQQzoFCC4QkQI6CwgAELEDEIMBEJECOgcIABCxAxBDOgYIABAKEEM6CggAELEDEIMBEEM6CAguELEDEIMBOgUILhCxAzoCCC46BAguEApQ1ARY1hZgsxxoAHAAeACAAdwBiAHPDZIBBjAuMTAuMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXo&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjY3Pvo7P_qAhVNoHIEHXh-BiUQ4dUDCAk&uact=5

George Vecsey

8/3/2020 07:11:45 pm

What a great chain of responses to the pairing of good work by two e-friends
And John Jeansonne, former Newsday sports reporter, contributed a Weird Al Yankovic song about grammar. Brilliant.
But....but....I have to confess, I sometimes say "You done good," knowingly, because I hear the voice of my great boss at Newsday, Jack Mann, who used it often as a compliment, with heavy emphasis. Jack, when he was covering baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers and onward) ran with some ball players in back-alley bars where they said "he done good" -- out of the bullpen, or dropping a bunt, or whatever.
Good friend of ours -- she knows who she is -- busts me every time I use it (to annoy her, by now.) Or she beats me to it, and imitates my intentional slang.
I think as a reporter who traveled a lot, I picked up a lot of regional or occupational slang, and willingly adopted it. I know I use "you all" from living and working in the south....and I use words I heard in England...or from "rellies" from Australia. And I use "passed" instead of "died" from hearing Blacks use that beautiful word and never could get it past NYT copy editors unless a quote. Reporters are magpies, and so are ball players, in their way.
So to everybody who has contributed so far to this post, you done good. (Jack, you heard that?) GV

bruce picken

8/3/2020 08:35:27 pm

george,

we all know 'you done well' is correct.

if you've travelled or lived in another country or have friends from abroad it can rub off.

i believe i've mentioned a few times that your use of 'mate' might get you in trouble when you go thru customs coming home.

sounds kinda socialist.

can't remember if you've used 'uni' but my aussie from from melbourne says or writes it.

i've resisted tho i confess to calling him or writing 'mate'.

occasionally lads instread of boys, but never blokes.

of course, from a spelling point of view, your inability to spell colour, odour, neighbour properly are disconcerting.

bruce

Randolph

8/3/2020 08:44:53 pm

George and all of you witty fellows,

Yes you done good!
However, George you did make one mistake.
Having lived in Kentucky you mentioned that you picked up “you all.” Of course it is “yall.” In the same way that the tires on a automobile are “tars” and as a journalist when you covered a fire, it was of course “ a far.”
Or as the great John Prine would say,
Bang! went the pistol.
Crash! went the window.
Ouch! went the son of a gun.
Onomatopoeia
I don't want to see ya
Speaking in a foreign tongue.

All of you fellows sure do entertain me. Thanks for the big fun.
RF

Andy Tansey

8/6/2020 09:53:59 pm

My law partner bought me a "Grammar Police" T-shirt, which I have put on as a put-on at the office on occasion.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=3kbIEicE&id=58763A531CF3A450B61D70AB47261F883DDB2990&thid=OIP.3kbIEicEibfMIq2lWoWP2gHaHa&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fep.yimg.com%2fay%2fyhst-95178242420387%2fgrammar-police-t-shirt-funny-geek-tee-15.jpg&exph=650&expw=650&q=image+of+grammar+police+T-shirt&simid=608028126269804336&ck=B665068CDAF301D4C637B4AF4FFF50C9&selectedIndex=3&FORM=IRPRST&ajaxhist=0

I have a nephew and a niece who live in the South, and I have been educated by them about southern arithmetic:
1 = you
2 = Y'all
More than 2 = all Y'all

One of them lived in Atlanta on a street with the word "Peach" in the name.

I decided to invent a blend contraction of the New York City outer boroughs' "yous" with "Y'all" and came up with "z'all." It's catching on, very slowly.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES
Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

Hopefully,* People Will Read This Essay on Grammar

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