Category Archives: News

July 8, 2010 · 7:54 am

Collective consciousness

Does anyone else lie awake at night fretting over collective nouns?

At my current stage of life, I often find myself wide awake in the wee hours, teeth clenched, eyes wide open, brain ticking away like an electricity meter on overload.  It’s 3:00 a.m. when little things become big things.

Last night it was collective nouns and why, even though they are singular, they often precede plural verbs.   You too, eh?

Example:  The couple were on their honeymoon.  Couple, singular; were, plural.  Even as I type this, my computer’s grammar checker flags it as an error.

A collective noun, also called a mass noun or non-count noun, is a noun that represents more than one thing:  couple, team, group, herd and countless more.

The most recent 3:00 a.m. over-analysis was precipitated by a lead sentence I read yesterday in The Washington Post:  “A handful of federal lawmakers are seeking to vastly expand the number of long-distance flights at Reagan National Airport . . .”   If “handful” is the subject, then why isn’t the verb “is?”  “Of lawmakers” shouldn’t matter; it’s just a prepositional phrase of sorts.

Bleary-eyed, I stumbled into my office and consulted two trusted sources.

The Associated Press Stylebook says that “nouns that denote a unit take singular verbs and pronouns.”  For example, “The committee is meeting.”

The Chicago Manual of Style says that a collective noun “takes a plural verb when it refers to the members of the group considered as individuals.”

Are they both correct?

I then scanned about a dozen word blogs for some practical interpretation.

The consensus among observers appears to be that collective nouns are singular and call for a singular verb, except when the members of a group are acting as individuals, in which case the collective noun is plural and requires plural verbs and pronouns.  So, yes, AP and Chicago are both correct.

Which brings me back to the couple on its/their honeymoon.  Are they acting as individuals and if so, is the honeymoon then over?

Tonight I’ll try counting the imaginary flock of sheep that are jumping over a fence.  It is “are,” right?   Oh, never mind.

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June 24, 2010 · 7:50 am

Modern maturity

I have gotten used to the notion of a United States president who is younger than I am.  I sat through many Back-to-School Night presentations by 22-year-old teachers, without judging.  I am even okay with being older than Supreme Court justice nominee Elena Kagan.

But I got a kick-in-the-gut blow as I pulled the AARP Magazine out of the mailbox and saw on the cover Valerie Bertinelli, who happens to be four months and 10 days younger than I.  By the way, she’s five days older than Elena Kagan.

AARP The Magazine comes addressed to my husband, though I am AARP-eligible.  I never had the guts to peel back the cover until yesterday—had to read about Valerie.   After all, her 1970s TV character, Barbara Cooper, and I were practically sisters.

The reason I never ventured inside the magazine?  I just knew there’d be articles about all sorts of scary aging topics, and the ads – nothing I’d need, to be sure.

I was surprised.  There’s an article on Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon and her work in promoting cancer research.  She’s 44, in case you were wondering.  A big picture of George Clooney appears just inside the front cover.  What for?  Does it really matter?  There’s a nice piece on microbreweries around the country and a funny interview with Dave Barry.  I also learned that Sean Penn, a famed member of Hollywood’s Brat Pack, will turn 50 this summer.

The writing is pretty edgy too.

The ads?  No Depends, or Metamucil or Geritol (do they even make Geritol anymore?).   It’s no surprise that there are plenty of ads for AARP products and services, including motorcycle insurance.  There’s an ad for an AARP-sponsored concert featuring Gladys Knight, B.B. King, Los Lobos, Gloria Gaynor, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Richie Havens.  There’s also an ad for Dr. Scholl’s.  I know firsthand that those feel really good on 50-year-old feet but then I also wore their exercise sandals when I was 14.

The magazine’s featured recipe is for tandoori chicken, whereas I expected any recipe offered by AARP would involve smothering something in cream of mushroom soup.

And guess what else?  A big fat crossword puzzle!

I’m thinking I might need my own subscription.

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June 10, 2010 · 6:22 am

Helen wheels

I have followed the career of the legendary veteran reporter Helen Thomas for many years and have learned from the examples she has set–up to and including the recent mega-blunder that abruptly ended her historic career.

By example, Helen Thomas taught me that women with intelligence, ambition and guts can make groundbreaking advances in male-dominated fields.

She showed me that love and passion for one’s work, coupled with serious pursuit of excellence, engender job satisfaction and career sustainability.

She showed me that showing up every day, even when one is sick, tired or facing treacherous weather, counts for something.

She showed me that having the courage to ask hard questions helps keep people honest.

She showed me that a person can work productively and happily well into her eighties.

Or maybe not.

In her 2006 book, Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public, she observed that the news media are steadily losing their objectivity.  The once-bright line between news and commentary is fading, she suggested.

It is no secret that Helen, too, has let more of her personal views spill into her fact-finding and reporting.  Like those she criticizes, she has stepped boldly over that once-bright line.

This week, by example, she showed me something I already knew:  think before you speak or you could regret it for the rest of your life.  Comments made within earshot of anyone can be your demise.  Always behave as though your comments are within someone’s earshot–especially if they are tasteless and offensive.  Better yet, keep them to yourself.

This week, Helen made a horrific comment about Israeli Jews living in Palestine that cost her the precious remainder of her career, as well as a reputation that was 89 years in the making.

I have long looked up to Helen Thomas for reasons too many to list.  I have met her several times and a year or so ago, had occasion to spend time one on one.   My limited personal experience is that she is warm, gracious and humble.  But to me, what has always stood out about Helen is how much she loves her work.

I will always remember watching an interview in which she was asked how much longer she would work before retiring.  I was inspired by her reply, “I will die with my boots on.”

I always thought she’d go abruptly, perhaps right there in the White House Press  Briefing Room, notebook and pen clutched in her red-fingernailed hands.  A couple of years ago, she returned to work after a serious and extended illness and kept plugging away. 

In retrospect, maybe returning to work was a mistake.  As people get older, their cognitive wires get crossed, they lose their inhibitions and they can behave in shocking and inappropriate ways.

I am sorry Helen didn’t get to die with her boots on.

Perhaps she should have slipped off the boots, had one heck of a party and enjoyed a well-deserved retirement from a long and distinguished career, before it was too late.  Before this is what she would be remembered for.

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June 7, 2010 · 7:53 am

Bee proud

You can have your baseball.   You can have your American Idol.  I’ll take a good spelling competition any day.

The National Spelling Bee.  That’s entertainment.  And it takes place right here in town.

Bee Week is my World Series.  And Bee 2010 did not disappoint.  At least that’s what I read.  Instead of watching the final round Friday night I was at, ahem, a baseball game.

How can you not love a spelling bee?  There are no drunk spectators, it’s a civilized show of preparation and skill and you just want to hug the contestants.  The person giving the words is called the pronouncer, reason enough to love this sport.  And if they broadcast it on ESPN, it’s a sport, no?

This year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee boasted a record 273 spellers ranging in age from 8 to 15 years.

This year’s winner was 14-year-old Anamika Veeramani, from Ohio, who correctly spelled “stromuhr” in the final round.  Just to get to the final, she and other youngsters had to correctly spell words like confiserie, ochidore and leishmanic—and do so with poise and composure under the pressure of live television, bright lights and the presence of fierce competition for a national prize.

These kids today.

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June 3, 2010 · 7:31 am

Save the plural noun

At some point, while we were not paying attention, a whole bunch of plural word forms became singular.  

This is not just an occasional slip by an unknowing individual.  The singularization of plural word forms is being committed by well educated people who should know better.

Pick up the paper or turn on the news and you will hear how “the data shows” or “the media is” or that someone was “an alumni” of such-and-such university.  I’ve lost count of the number of times I have heard people with advanced degrees ask, “what was the criteria” for such and such.

Have we become afraid of using correct word forms because they “sound funny?”  I’ve had a number of readers tell me they sometimes hesitate to use a word correctly because it “sounds funny” or “seems weird.”  Perhaps certain word choices seem funny or weird because their correct uses are becoming so endangered they shock our ears.

At the same time, let us not shun our singular nouns, and instead embrace the news medium, medical datum, selection criterion and university alumnus.  If we turn our backs on these singular words, they will sound ever weirder and funnier and eventually, become extinct.  Then our children and their children will never know–or speak–the truth.

Similarly, when we are using the plural, let us avoid disagreement between noun and verb.  Let us set a good example with the data show, the media are, the criteria were, or the alumni give.

As many will point out, some modern sources have loosened their standards.  This is likely because they believe the tide of common practice is too high to suppress.  Kind of like white shoes before Memorial Day.

How sad.

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May 25, 2010 · 8:11 am

The princess bribe

Sarah, honey, how could you do it?  As those of us here in Washington, D.C. could have told you, money for influence is a tricky notion, one that usually doesn’t reflect well in headlines, not to mention on hidden camera.

But you appeared on video, soliciting large sums in exchange for access to your influential ex-husband.  It was painful to watch, especially for you.

Next time, maybe you’ll consider all those who’ve looked up to you all these years.  Think of the children whose parents read them Budgie the Little Helicopter—which by the way, our son loved.  My husband and I used to hide Budgie on nights when we were too tired to read it (it was a little long) but our son always found it and brought it to us beggingly.  You were a part of us even then.

Think of all of us whom you inspired with your Weight Watchers commercials.  The way you pronounced Weight Wohchahs lent sophistication to our point-counting.

We looked up to you and yet you were a duchess we could relate to, with your struggles with weight and overindulgence, and those unflattering swimsuit shots.  We rooted for you when the tabloids exposed your troubles.  But this latest misstep has put your supporters in one sticky wicket.

We understand that, financially, you have fallen on hard times.  There, there, dear.  Come join me for two-for-one night at Ruby Tuesday and we’ll work through it.  That is, if you don’t end up doing hard porridge in the chokey.

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May 11, 2010 · 7:48 am

Misguided mea culpa

“We did make a slight error in judgment.” 

This was the response of Thomas Chambers, owner of Chambers Funeral Home and Crematorium in Riverdale, Md., last week, after state officials discovered 40 human bodies piled up like trash in a garage.  I’ll spare you the disturbing details.

A public apology is never easy, but “a slight error in judgment” was the best explanation Mr. Chambers could come up with?  I doubt the families of his clients, victims actually, would consider this a slight error.  I trust they were outraged not only by this egregious act but by the man’s lack of compassion, not to mention his refusal to own up to the seriousness of the offense.  As if this weren’t bad enough, he added that the company “would like to stay in business.”  Of course the facility’s license was revoked. 

This story broke just as I was reading What Were They Thinking? by Steve Adubato, a media analyst and commentator who became an expert on crisis communication following his own public blunder while serving in the New Jersey legislature. 

In the book, Adubato examines more than 20 crises involving corporations, government agencies and high-profile individuals exhibiting varying skills in facing the public with a timely and convincing response.  He highlights the strategies of those who have handled crises well and he contrasts them with examples of those who, usually for lack of a plan, handled their public crises disastrously.

Throughout my career I have counseled clients who speak in the public realm, whether they are witnesses at a congressional hearing or fielding media questions about an unpopular corporate maneuver.  Failure to prepare ahead of the crisis—using carefully chosen words that show sincere acceptance of responsibility and assurance that appropriate corrective measures are underway—can cause any financial loss to be overshadowed by the cost of an unrecoverable loss of personal or professional trust.

On a much smaller scale, I have just had another occasion to question how public apologies are crafted.

As I was preparing this blog entry, my Internet connection failed.  I called my provider who said, “I am sorry you are experiencing problems.  I show an outage in your area.”  This reminded me of the person who stops short of an apology by saying “I am sorry if your feelings were hurt.”  It offers a hollow gesture without taking any responsibility. 

An hour later, my Internet connection resumed.  Then it failed again.  I called again and got a different representative who went a bit further:  “I apologize.”  Okay, that’s better.  “But there’s not much we can do.”

I really wanted to give her some tips but resisted.  Instead, I asked her if she knew what might have caused the outage. 

She said, “No, they don’t like to tell us that.”

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May 3, 2010 · 7:11 am

Fashion nonsense

You’ve got to love the lingo of the fashion industry.

Fashion is a heavy-hitting segment of the world economy, so it should be taken seriously.  But is it taking itself too seriously?

I am slow to keep up with the jargon.   Shrugs, jeggings, boyfriend jeans.  I am often garment-naïve until these styles are already passé.  I know tunic because Julius Caesar wore one.  As an aside, my husband was shocked recently to see a storefront sign advertising the “boyfriend crop.”  He thought it was an S&M device.

I try to listen to fashion consultant Stacy London, host of What Not to Wear, when she tells us how it is–what clothing styles we should wear for our body types or how to make an impression at that all-important social occasion.  Heaven knows, I need all the help I can get.

But there’s something about Stacy and her ilk that I just can’t take seriously when I hear:

“If you are wearing a sequined evening gown, you need a shoe…” or

“If you are short and stocky, you should wear a pant…”

A shoe?  A pant?  Just one?

OK, I know that’s accepted fashion-speak, but are we supposed to go along with this without snickering?

I’m not sure I can stand to listen to it anymore.  Maybe I’ll go out and buy an earmuff.

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April 28, 2010 · 4:44 am

Operation Buzzword

Marketing firms have perfected the art and science of crafting compelling campaigns.  The best campaigns reach a level so deep that targeted consumers are left with indelible memory retention, emotional engagement and motivation to act.  Think back to some age-old advertising slogans.  Even after more than 20 years, we remember the peace of mind we had upon hearing “Don’t leave home without it.”  Or “Plop plop fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is.”  Or “You’re in good hands.”  

We know that marketing  and ad campaigns see the light of day only after they have been fleshed out, flushed out, looked at upside down and inside out, extensively field and focus group tested, to ensure the message reaches targeted eyes and ears in the most stirring manner possible.

I found it interesting to read recently that military operations are named using a similar process.  In “Operation Name Game:  Where Military Might Meets Marketing,” The Washington Post’s Christian Davenport looks at how U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are named–so as to rile the troops, intimidate or soften up the enemy or comfort those on the home front. 

For example, he points out that campaigns directed internally at the troops (e.g., Operation Scorpion Sting) are named differently from those aimed at local population (e.g., Glad Tidings of Benevolence) to elicit the desired response.

He added that campaign crafters are also charged with identifying potential downsides, to avoid serious consequences – such as being ridiculed in late night monologues.  Davenport upholds Winston Churchill as one of the best marketeers in history but notes Churchill didn’t have to worry about Leno.

But think about it.  The same opinion research, buzzwords and psychographics are in play among military strategists that might have gone in to Staples’ Easy Button.  Click; it’s that easy.  Northrop Grumman should get in on that one.

Read Davenport’s piece; it’s brilliantly written.

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April 26, 2010 · 7:37 am

Today is history

My blood was literally boiling (just making sure you are paying attention).

Yesterday morning on Weekend Today, an error-filled news caption hit me like finger flick between the eyes.  Occasional errors happen—everyone’s human—and,  given it was Sunday, I decided to be charitable and give the show a chance to notice and correct it before the end of the piece.  It almost always happens that way.  A misspelled word or other error appears in the caption but the next time it appears, it’s been corrected.  Not this time.

The caption read, “Single Mom’s of Choice” and focused on women who opt for artificial insemination over waiting for a mate.  Of course the first thing that jumped off the screen (not literally but almost) was the misplaced apostrophe in Mom’s.  Then I noticed the erroneous preposition.  It should have read Single Moms by Choice, not of Choice.  Single moms of choice would mean someone chose them.  The whole caption needed to be scrapped.

Jenna Wolfe had introduced the piece by saying that “one out of four children are raised by a single parent.”  Come on, where are the editors?   As the sloppy caption popped up for about the fourth time, “Relationship Expert” Robi Ludwig explained that for women over 35, “their options for fertility is decreasing.” 

I had already choked on my French Roast during Jenna’s earlier blathering about something, I can’t recall what because all I heard was, “I was like…and Lester was like… and then I was like…and then he was like…”  Is this a morning news program or the cafeteria at San Fernando Valley Junior High?

That’s it.  Charles Osgood, I’ve loved you for years.  You are smart and articulate and your stories are intelligent and interesting.  I’ve seen the error of my ways.  I am moving to CBS where the writers, producers, anchors and reporters don’t share one brain cell.

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