Old habits die hard! As a former copy editor, I still cringe when I see mistakes in the newspaper or hear someone use the wrong word. We were talking about grammar pet peeves last night, and it reminded me of some of my pet peeves.
I try to overlook a lot of the grammar mistakes I see on Facebook, but I find myself wanting to edit people's statuses. It's the little things that bother me, such as using "its" instead of "it's" or "your" instead of "you're." So if YOU'RE on Facebook, please edit YOUR posts.
The worst offender, though, has to be The Pampa News, which obviously has never heard of The Associated Press stylebook! The reporters all make the same mistakes. One of my big pet peeves is when they use the day and the date..... "Friday, February 3." AP style is to use one or the other, not both. I could go on about The Pampa News, but I won't bore you.
It's not always mistakes in written material that bother me. Sometimes, it's when people say the wrong word. Some of the mistakes are funny. I won't name names because I don't want to embarrass my mama! I'm sure a lot of people go to The Plaza and order the "Guatemala" dip. You know, that green stuff!
Even the "professionals" on TV and radio make their share of blunders. I listen to a Christian radio station from Amarillo, and most of its local in-house staff needs to go back to school for some remedial grammar lessons. They're terrible!
On this station's morning show, a husband-wife team has a devotional program. The wife is constantly using the wrong word. It cracks me up sometimes. She's always talking about "getting off her hobbyhorse." Honey, a hobbyhorse is a long stick with the shape of a horse's head at one end.... you need to get off your HIGH horse! I'd like to send this woman Hooked on Phonics, so she can learn to pronounce words correctly, too. It's Clarendon, not Clarenton.
Sometimes on their program, they have a guest host who sounds like he just fell off the turnip truck in Oklahoma! He uses terrible grammar! An example.... "I done seen that there verse before but ain't never saw it like that...." That's the actual sentence he used. I ain't kidding!
The station used to air a program with a retired pastor. He was a pretty good preacher and knew a lot about the Bible, but his catch phrase was "Have you been borned again, friend?" I was tempted so many times to send him an e-mail to tell him "borned" ain't no word.
The drive time host really drives me crazy sometimes. Besides her grating voice, she doesn't know the difference when saying "you and I" and "you and me." She always says, "Jesus loves you and I." NO! He doesn't! Jesus loves you and Jesus loves me, so.... Jesus loves you and me! Got it now?
I know I'm being nitpicky, but these people are on the radio! They should know better. I can't criticize them too much, though. They are doing their best to serve the Lord and spread the Gospel on the airwaves. And, for that, I admire them.
But would it hurt them to pick up the dictionary once in a while?
Ha ha. A little town near here was known for interesting mistakes in the paper. We all forgave them because they were so wonderful about posting pictures of our children on the front page and writing chatty little articles about the stuff we cared about but I just cracked up when for two weeks running they misspelled the heading "Public Record" by leaving out the "l". I thought for sure it would be a one time thing, but I guess it took that long for anyone to notice.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny... but a bad mistake to make. Reminds me of the headlines on the Leno show!
ReplyDeleteChris
I think grammar is very important but, one thing we have to remember is what is in that person's heart. I wonder if that retired minister is J. Vernon McGee. I loved listening to his radio ministry.
ReplyDelete