Word Watch
Tank warfare: The stock market declined by > 500 points yesterday. An NPR reporter informed us this AM that the "market tanked." Fingernails on a blackboard.
You who?: Appropriate to this gripe, an NPR reporter named Tankersly did a feature on what Congress could do to deal with the current economic doldrums. He reported, "You could do this . . . " No, Mr. Tankersly, I cannot, I am not a member of Congress. We hear the second person being substituted for the first and third a lot in conversation and reporting: "You could see the rain pouring down at about 3 inches an hour." No, I was 500 miles away, thank you, cursing the drought and the heat. "You felt like you were in a movie." I don't know what that feels like, plus at the time mentioned, I felt like I was in bed asleep.
Who's on first?: Not to pick on the aforementioned Tankersly, who seems to be a competent reporter, but he voiced another frequently used puzzler. In itemizing remedies for the economy, he started, "First off, you . . ." Never mind the "you," but "First off"? You may hear it frequently (note that I didn't write "You hear it frequently"); I do. What's wrong with "First"? Is there a "second off"?
Imperfect unions
Below is a link to a column in the Charleston SC Daily Mail about the depredations upon individual and business rights by the union goons running the NLRB. I'll refrain from mounting my soapbox (for the moment) except to ask you liberals how you justify these contraventions of rights and of the democratic process.
http://www.dailymail.com/Opinion/Commentary/201108021369
Tanked. An interesting word. Means "got the slop knocked out of it" I guess.
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