Birth defect reported with defective grammar
 

An infant born with four legs, three hands, three kidneys and an abnormal liver to a rural Zambian woman two weeks ago, is pictured in Lusaka, July 2, 2003. Doctors at Zambia's main Lusaka University Teaching Hospital said July 3, 2003 the babies deformities were caused by incomplete growth of another fetus and multiplication of cells. They said the baby, whose is yet to be named, would be operated upon and is likely to lead a normal life. [spree: deformed baby unclothed from the waist down]

Well, with all those extra body parts, I suppose the baby can be referred to in the plural -- about a kid and a half, I guess.

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
 

A survey which helps us find the places where people talk funny. (Spree: It doesn't address the /to-may-to/ vs. /to-mah-to/ debate. Sorry to disappoint.)

Birth defect reported with defective grammar
 

Yes, but the absence of an apostrophe is OUTRAGEOUS in either case.

And, weird!

a moment on the lips ...
 

From a stupid little encarta.msn story I clicked on after checking my email (about celebs who are/were members of Mensa):

"Alan Rachins played a lawyer on the Emmy Award-winning television program L.A. Law and currently plays Dharma's hippy father on Dharma and Greg."

Maybe he should go easy on the pot brownies.

Courrier Electronique
 

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...l__3&printer=1

(French admit inferiority of their language by requiring the term "e-mail" to be banned by law)

Ah Bartleby, Ah Humanity!
 

For your Timmying pleasure, The Elements of Style is available on-line!

Hyphens are underrated
 

especially in domain names, such as:

http://www.powergenitalia.com (spree: Oh please, when was the last time I linked to a porn site?)

The owner of the suggestive domain name isn't in the industrial-strength vibrator business, unfortunately. Rather, it's in the industrial-strength battery charger business. I suppose these two industries could be related -- if your vibrator is as big as a truck engine (and needs that extra oomph to power those strokes).

p(Another site which proves my point that hyphens are underrated is http://www.whorepresents.com -- when you want to find a special gift for that special hooker . . . or not)c

Romeo and Juliet, animated (with fresh dialogue!)
 

http://myboringlife.com/l33t/romeo.html [spree: YOUR COMPUTER WILL MAKE NOISES including What Is Love by Haddaway and some requiem set to a disco beat.]

(Wm. Shakespeare's tragedy, remodeled as a stick-figure animation, complete with chatroom dialogue and mis-spellings. While the action cuts to the chase in many instances, it is still cast as a five act play.)

Innuendos -- with pincites!
 

If you've ever wanted a cite-checking assignment that required a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it's here.

Shedding Aligator Tears
 

Anyway, it turns out the Florida Gators put a picture of a crocodile on the cover of their media guide. ESPN article.

Oops.

Politics. It's all so dehumanizing.

Illiterati on the op-ed page.
 

In yesterday's edition of the Wall Street Journal, I read an article that began as follows:

"Once again, the Episcopal Church has diffused a major crisis...."

I've noticed many similar homophonic lapses in the popular press over the last several years. This latest gaffe (the NY Times is also a serial offender) started me thinking about the most persistent, irritating mistakes that I've seen, which will probably end up as part of the 'accepted' lexicon through a combination of sheer editorial laziness, ineptitude and repetition. My candidates:

"diffuse" (defuse)
"principal" (principle [misused BOTH ways])
"tact" (tack [as in, 'to take a tack'])
"tow" (toe [the line])
"effect[ed]" (affect[ed])

There are more - I'm just too annoyed to think of them right now. Apparently, many people who write for a living these days have never bothered to READ much of anything beyond blogs and grocery lists, during their 'education' or otherwise.

Grrrrrr.

CDF (rant over - carry on)

[edited because I'm a Timmy, and this is the Timmy page]

Pet peeve
 

Wherefore, hereinafter neither shall be used, right?

Tim-me, tim-you
 

Therefore are thou Romeo?

Gender neutrality gone amok
 

Photo caption from the local paper:

It troubles me that some lunkheaded copy editor thought to change "fireman" (correct) to "firefighter" (incorrect and comically inaccurate, at least in the world of steam powered railways), but decided that discretion was the better part of valor and left "manning" alone.