tags:
GrammarBook.com says:That’s the elephant-in-the-room
A Sportswriter Cries “Foul!”
It now resides in the guest room of my house. Ladies welcome.
Don’t go Tiger (go ballistic, or go east)
“Meaning what ace?” (actually saw this in a David Milch script)
He’s the odd-man-out
I love the Blue Book, a copy sits in each of the 3 bathrooms in my house, but why are you grammarians so adamant against alright? It seems to me there’s a genuine need for it. Sometimes the kids are all right, sometimes they’re alright. Clearly 2 different things.
Postcript: Wayne Hagin, a broadcaster at the time (can’t remember what team), knew about my mission. One night near the very end of the season, he yanked that sign off the bathroom wall and stashed it in his briefcase.
Thank you very much for your kind words regarding The Blue Book; we appreciate that.
Say It Ain’t So Spain (it ain’t so hot, either)
Long ago, in the press box of the old Comiskey Park in Chicago, there was a sign on the women’s bathroom that said “Ladie’s.” It was a charming sign, in the form of a baseball—seams and all—but that apostrophe drove me nuts. Year after year, covering the Oakland A’s, I wasn’t able to walk past that thing without seething.
Bruce Jenkins takes a traditionalist view of any time. The one-word version was universally frowned upon until relatively recently.
ReplyBill S. says:July 31, 2016, at 4:57 pm“This isn’t a funeral you know.” (True, but I think my friend Pete recognizes it.)
Lidy V. says:July 29, 2016, at 5:24 pm
The rules are the rules, and alright is still considered nonstandard. According to the “Usage Note” in our American Heritage Dictionary: “All right … probably should have followed the same orthographic development as already and altogether. But despite its use by a number of reputable authors, the spelling alright has never been accepted as a standard variant …”
Then there’s the sentence that takes forever to reach the point—and by the time you get there, you’re no longer interested:
As for hyphens, here are a few really dreadful ones I’ve seen in responsible newspapers lately:
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Thanks for trying guys (maybe you should go back to gals)
I love your newsletters and thought provoking articles. However, this time I don’t agree with your take on any time. This is what the Cambridge Dictionary has to say:
Then in 1990 the park closed down. Visitors knew they’d be making their last visit to the storied old yard. On my last night there, about a month before the season ended, I dawdled and stalled until I was the last person in the press box. And I was prepared. I whipped out a bottle of Wite-Out and made that apostrophe vanish.
Reply
by Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist
-
-
Somehow, a guy named Al showed up in all right, and it’s now “alright.” Nope. Wrong. And I have no time for “anytime.” It has to be two words: any time. Once you’ve written “any hour” or “any minute,” how can you go with “anytime”?
We understand how a non-native English speaker might be puzzled by those lines. In each case Bruce Jenkins is demonstrating how leaving out a crucial comma leads to a misunderstanding of the sentence. Allow us to explain the first one, then you may be able to make sense of the others. “Thanks for trying, guys” means that the guys are being thanked for “trying.” However, “Thanks for trying guys” means that someone is being thanked for “trying guys.” We hope that helps.
Going forward. It’s not bad grammar, it just has no place. What, as opposed to going backward? Eliminate going forward from every usage, in print or conversation, and it won’t be missed.
ReplyReplyJuly 29, 2016, at 5:22 pm
Then there’s the misplaced apostrophe, so common on the street:
The hyphens are coming, and beware—they’re taking over. Commas, not so much. Commas have gone extinct. These are a couple of my pet peeves when it comes to grammatical violations in print. More on that later. In the meantime:
Dare-we-say he was confused?
Nicky C. says:“She fly’s with her own wing’s”
Thank you for writing.
The best record of all-time
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment
Name *
The tension-level was high
Posted on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at 1:30 pm
6 Comments on A Sportswriter Cries “Foul!”6 responses to “A Sportswriter Cries “Foul!””
- GrammarBook.com says:
“Fresh sandwich’s”
“The occasion of the Wallace brothers burning down the Gazebo with the very last match at their disposal and then pretending it never happened at the after-party at Bob’s house takes a special place in history.” Taken literally, what takes a special place in history?
July 30, 2016, at 2:38 pm
As a Dutch speaking person and student of English (exam year interpretation) I do not understand this one in your series. Especially the lines on comma. Sorry!
GrammarBook.com says:
Email *
Website
July 30, 2016, at 2:37 pm
How about the second time in as many days? As many days as what? Should be in two days.
Reply
anytime: at a time that is not or does not need to be decided or agreed.
-
Commas? Somehow, they have been deemed unnecessary. More actual examples:
Reply
Bruce Jenkins’s new book, Shop Around: Growing Up With Motown in a Sinatra Household, is available in bookstores and on Amazon.com. Jenkins is the son of Gordon Jenkins, who worked with all the greats of the pre-Elvis era (including Judy Garland, Nat “King” Cole, and Sinatra). The Miracles’ “Shop Around,” the first big hit of the Motown empire, turned Bruce’s life around at the age of 12. Shop Around is a book for soul-music lovers and anyone whose parents were on entirely different musical wavelengths.
