Wretches with knotted knickers
I don't want to spoil this by detailing my own response. However, I cannot resist observing that the comments at the end of this outraged blog post seem pretty much divided between the ink-stained wretches and those who are, instead, stained by hair spray.
What's your reaction?
"Sucks" is okay, then.
ReplyDeleteAh, Sherwood - the voice of reason!
ReplyDeleteI'm used to working for clients with style guides and editors with peccadilloes. Part of my job is shifting my brain from one to the other. This list doesn't strike me as much more than a couple of pages you'd print out and stick in the back of your Chicago Manual or AP Stylebook. I actually agree with many of them, though some leave me baffled. Sometimes you just have to say "pedestrian." As some commenters pointed out, "alleged" is used for precise not-getting-sued reasons. And he missed my favorite, "pre-dawn darkness."
ReplyDeleteWhat strikes me is the tone-deaf way it was imposed from above and the draconian way it's being enforced. No one's going to rat out a colleague for using a forbidden word--or those that do will be quickly branded corporate toadies and shunned. Dissension and chaos, dogs and cats sleeping together... Breaking bad and lazy habits is good; treating professionals like children is bad.
My take is that, while I agree with Brian that the whole "report your fellow workers" part is over the top, the actual list itself is a pretty good collection of crutches and cliches, and my amusement was over the amount of outrage from the people who apparently can't imagine describing a snowstorm without talking about "the white stuff" and love starting three stories a week with the phrase: "It's every parent's worst nightmare."
ReplyDeleteBut then I'm old enough to remember when TV people were funny looking and knew how to write, and the good-looking folks were all performing "I Do! I Do!" at dinner theaters.