Tuesday, October 02, 2007

What does a spinal chord sound like? (Or, why I hate homonyms)

It's inevitable: Mistakes get into print. (Also into blogs, but that's a whole nother ... I mean, that's another story.)

I confessed here some time ago that I read over the phrase "marshal law" (instead of "martial"), which got into my editor-in-chief's column. And that was bad. Very, very bad.

But it's hard not to gloat when the phrase "spinal chord injury" turns up in The New York Times--and, two days later, it remains in the online version, in the third paragraph.

6 comments:

punkinsmom said...

E flat

Posol'stvo the Medved said...

In an article on ESPN.com or maybe CBS Sportsline.com, someone today used "their" instead of "there". Which shouldn't bother me. But it really, really does. If you're (not "your") getting paid as a writer (which I presume this person was -- that could be wrong), you should know which word to use.

But maybe that's just me.

Anonymous said...

In Newsday this week:

"sometimes they were 100% sure of their decision. Other times they waivered."



(oh, and I always thought the proper idiom was "that's a whole nother thing")

Grammarian@mindspring.com said...

If you hate homonyms, are you homophobic?

Jim Donahue said...

Hm. Well, if you love homonyms, you're a homophiliac.

Anonymous said...

Hate, hate, hate it when people write "vocal chords." Gaaaaah!