PhraseWit tells it like it is.

In my decades of reading the venerable weekly magazine The New Yorker — in hard copy, and now, deliciously, on my iPad — I finally caught a mistake. My heart pounded when I saw it. Could it be? In the Comment segment from “The Talk of the Town” on the political conventions, Steve Coll wrote: “But the tradition of free political airtime had been established, and admen honed in and fashioned the quadrennial infomercials we now endure.” I’d just been discussing the misuse of “honed in on” with our also-venerable game designer. It was top of mind, and now it was in my face.

My schadenfreude was somewhat muted, however, by what I found on Twitter, which was a dismissive quip and a link to a defense rather than an admission of error. New Yorker editor Mary Norris writes in a post entitled “Don’t Try to Hone In On a Copy Editor“:

Our tweeting readers have homed in on what they characterize as a flagrant misuse in this week’s Comment. . . . A million tweeters think [honed in] should be “homed in.” Continue reading →

This week’s letter comes from an old friend/editor. It fomented a grammar rumpus amongst our ranks that carried across the pond. Take a read and see what your grammar ear tells you. We invite you to add your two cents to our Facebook page. All serious responses will be eligible for a free copy of Phrase Wit. When all is said and done, we’ll make a McLaughlin-Group-style verdict and bring down the gavel in a follow-up post. NB: The Comments section seems to be having technical difficulties for the moment, so please go to our Facebook page to post/repost your comments!

Leigh Sprimont writes:

An old friend/editor posed this question on Facebook:

Which is correct: “What color does red and yellow make?” OR “What color do red and yellow make?”

My ear tells me the former is correct, but I am not an expert on subject/verb agreement and I think that’s what we’re dealing with here. Can someone offer the rule that explains why only one of these is correct?

By the way, I already suggested she change it to “What color do you get when you combine red and yellow?” I’m just that kind of editor … but it’s for a very brief audio segment for kids, so the extra words are an issue.

Thanks for your input!

Leigh

Fomented: Instigated, excited, whipped or stirred up.

Sabbatical refers to the period of paid leave granted to a college teacher for study or travel. By extension, it is loosely a time away from a regular activity. Our esteemed colleague, co-founder, and blogger extraordinaire, David Drucker, has been on sabbatical from The Ballpoint Revue with a shoulder injury that has kept him from being able to type. Since he types for a living, it hasn’t been a very good time. Yours truly, Susan Babcock, has been buried getting PhraseWit ready for release, traveling, and holiday shopping. (That last part is false, but I like having three things in my lists.) We apologize to our fans for the silence, and plan to get noisy again starting now!

Me Tarzan; you Jane

A college professor friend recently sent me a note whose last sentence read “This will be a great experience for you and I.” It was immediately clear that the following scenario had played out several times during this highly educated man’s formative years.

He’d say something like “Jim and me are going to the movies” and a nearby adult – teacher, parent, etc. — would smack him down, hard. Steve (let’s call him Steve) would be told, in a stern voice, something like “You must say ‘Jim and I,’ not ‘Jim and me.’ After a while, Steve developed the “me” phobia that afflicts so many otherwise articulate individuals.

While I wouldn’t dream of correcting him to his face, if Steve wanted to know how to choose between “me” and “I” this is what I’d tell him: Continue reading →