Owner: The Engine Room URL:http://engineroomblog.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 06:53:16 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog about English language use, misuse and abuse, as well as words in general. Brought to you by two sub-editors on a weekly UK magazine. If you have a grammar or spelling conundrum, why not ask us? Site statistics:Click here
Cheltenham: Starzaan is a class horse 2008-03-14 13:43:00 The reason I didn't post on the blog yesterday was because I'm currently at Cheltenham
, winning money on the horses.The Cheltenham Festival Guide 2008 has a section entitled 'What the Experts Think?'. Never mind the exclamation mark, I was taken by this quote from Hughie Morrison, trainer of Starzaan:Starzaan is a class
horse who has all sorts of problems with legs, wind etcDoesn't sounds very class to me. I have a mental picture of Starzaan (pictured below) limping and farting his way across the finishing line...
Daytime English 2008-03-13 14:14:00 Being a pensioner I have lots of time to enjoy daytime TV which, besides making your brain leak out your ears, offers some lovely eye-watering use of English
. F'rinstance...From Under The Hammer, a daily look a house buying: "We have a handy local shop nearby."From Grand Designs, a daily look at house building: "It's a great example of greenification."From one of the may copdocs: "...the never-ending war against criminals and law-breakers..."Much nicer was a phrase used by an American lady in a news report: "I was breath-taken."And I was taken by a phrase coined by a cabaret singer during a documentary, Benidorm Unpacked, in which he bemoaned the total lack of job security with the warning: "That's why your name's in chalk - not lights!"And while not strictly relevant to this blog, I have Read more:Daytime
Roget: 'headline writers and journalists' 2008-03-16 09:10:00 There was an interesting article on Peter Roget, creator of the thesaurus, in The Times' Books section yesterday. I took a little exception at the following though:At its worst, [a thesaurus] is a crutch, for crossword enthusiasts, students desperate to imply a little learning in an essay crisis, headline writers, nervous after-dinner speakers and, yes, journalists
.Headline writers and journalists? All the headline writers I've ever met have been journalists. Perhaps Ben Macintyre, who is the author of this piece, means 'headline writers and other journalists'.In the same way, it bugs me when people (including some of my colleagues) refer to 'production staff and journalists'. Sub editors and designers can be journalists too!Wikipedia agrees with me on this.
Guantanamo Bay: Sami Al-Hajj 2008-03-15 06:06:00 Is it just me, or is anyone else a little confused as to why the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba is referred to as Gitmo? Shouldn't it be Gutmo, Gatmo or even Gtomo? I woke up this morning with this question on my mind so I have evidently been blogging/subbing too much recently.Anyway, I can only assume that Gitmo is a play on the word 'git', considering some of the stories that have emerged regarding the treatment of prisoners.Not wanting to make (too much) light of a serious issue, I'd like to direct you to to the website Prisoner 345. This focuses on the plight of Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Hajj (pictured), who is being held as an 'enemy combatant' at Guantanamo and who has been on hunger strike for more than a year now.He is the only journalist currently 'detained' at Gitmo but
Press releases: BVRLA / BVLRA 2008-03-19 08:49:00 I am impressed by this press release from the BVRLA. In the first sentence it calls itself the British Vehicle Leasing and Rental Association – wouldn't that be the BVLRA? It's a bit difficult to read the image below so click to see an enlarged version.Now I don't know much about media relations, but I would assume that getting your own organisation's name right is probably a good first step.
Read more:Press
The £4 pint of beer is here. Maybe 2008-03-18 08:51:00 Not for the first time recently, I've been reading about the soaring price of a pint of beer here in the capital. This time it was on the front page of today's Metro free paper:In London the average price of a pint – at £4.06 – is dearer than a hit of heroinI don't know much about the price of heroin, but neither do I know any pubs in London that charge £4 a pint. The pubs near where I live (a fairly nice bit of Zone 3) charge around the £3 mark; you might pay £3.30 in a gastropub.Ah, but what about all those expensive bars – surely they push the price up? Possibly, but many of the swanky ones sell bottles, not pints, and the ones that do sell expensive pints will be more than compensated for by cheapo chains such as JD Wetherspoon (no relation) that charge nearer the £2 mark. A Read more:Maybe
Scam emails: motherless baby's home 2008-03-17 13:20:00 I know Apus likes email scams and their telltale strange use of English, so the following extract (from an email I received entitled 'DEAR BELOVED FRIEND') is for him.I am Mrs. Gloria Caldwell from LONDON, I am 58 years old, I am deaf and suffering from a long time cancer of the breast, which also affected my brain. From all indication my condition is really deteriorating, and my doctors have courageously advised me that I may not live beyond the next two months, this is because the cancer stage has reached a critical stage. I was brought up in a motherless baby's homeI love that – 'motherless baby's home' instead of orphanage. And how courageous of the doctors to advise her that she is about to die.I suppose I should show more sympathy, seeing as Gloria is from LONDON like me...
Survey: can you identify the moon? 2008-03-20 07:34:00 I don't mean to keep kicking free paper Metro, but I am baffled by the results of a survey it reports on today. The findings include: "Nearly three-quarters [of children surveyed] can't identify
the Moon in the night sky" "57% cannot identify Mars" "44% cannot identify Saturn"Hmm. Fewer children can identify the moon in the sky than they can Mars and Saturn. A little odd, don't you think?Then again, the survey was "to mark the launch of the new Power Rangers DVD" so I don't put a great deal of faith in it.In case you don't know: the MoonMetro's online version of the story: it doesn't include all the strange findings above but there is an amusing correction...
Student journalism and Enter Shikari 2008-03-23 08:26:00 I'm spending the long bank holiday weekend up in Derby.Yesterday evening, while waiting in the pub for someone, I flicked through a copy of local student magazine Dusted. It wasn't the most exciting read, but then I'm not studying at the University of Derby.However I was amused by an interview with the band Enter Shikari - albeit for the wrong reasons. I especially liked this bit:Making it into one of the backstage rooms [in Rock City, Nottingham] I'm greeted with a warm welcome by all of Enter Shikari, who easily look like they could fit into the backdrop of a normal night in [Derby club] Bluenote. I sit down ready to do the interview but just before I'm about to start, Rory (Clewlow, guitar and backing vocals) offers me a beer. A little shocked, I take one and thank him.Right... so you'r Read more:Student
, journalism
Word of the day: drunkorexia 2008-03-25 11:08:00 We haven't featured a good portmanteau for a while, and I have Sarah to thank for pointing out this one: drunkorexia. It's the phenomenon of women "skipping meals more and more in order to drink alcohol and remain slim". That's according to the Marie Claire website, anyway, which I have to point out I don't read that often.And yes, March is evidently 'alcohol month' on the Engine Room.Anyone for seconds?
Verbing: I'll just missed-call you 2008-03-24 06:44:00 I overheard a great bit of verbing in the pub yesterday evening:I'll just missed-call you(Two girls were swapping contact details. The first girl gave her mobile phone number to the second girl, who called that number and immediately hung up - allowing the first girl to get the second girl's number from the missed call.)Back to work tomorrow, so these pub-based anecdotes will be coming to an end, I'm afraid.PS. The cost of a pint last night: £1.60ish (it was a Samuel Smith's pub). Oh and sorry about the lack of pictures on the blog this weekend, but I've been using dial-up...
Typo of the week: sweet 2008-03-27 08:26:00 A simple typo (or possibly spelling mistake) made the subs' desk chuckle today. One of our writers submitted a feature containing the rhetorical question:Would all your customers dessert you?Maybe this is what it means to put someone on ice...PS There's no picture to accompany this post because my "organization's Internet use policy restricts access at this time" to my favourite free image library, www.morguefile.com. As we also sometimes use Morguefile to source images for our publications, I can only imagine that this situation will be rectified shortly...
Names: Robin for a girl 2008-03-26 11:06:00 Sarah has emailed us a nice little name-based anecdote:A work friend of mine told me a story yesterday that made me laugh. He said his sister, who was a bit of a 70s child, had always really liked the name 'Robin
' for a girl. Throughout their childhood she'd always said that if she had a baby girl when she grew up then she'd call her Robin.It turns out that she did get married and have a baby girl, but had to rethink the name she'd chosen as the guy she married had the surname Graves!Our other posts about names:Mr ConmanWhat's in a name?
Read more:Names
The first Friday roundup 2008-03-28 08:25:00 When I started this blog with Apus almost a year ago, I planned to write one post every weekday but was afraid I’d struggle to find sufficient material. As it turned out, that wasn’t a problem – and nowadays my main concern is lack of time rather than lack of subject matter. Often I would love to blog about a particular topic but time constraints mean I have to let it go.To address this, today I’m introducing a regular Friday
round-up of everything that has interested me in the preceding week but that I haven’t had time to blog about in depth. Let me know what you think...Here's an interesting BBC article on how the names for police operations are selected.I recently wrote about cameraman Sami al-Hajj, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay. Shortly afterwards, MobLogic sent me a li
Juxtaposition: syphilis and a banana 2008-04-01 08:26:00 A great example of juxtaposition in yesterday's free paper thelondonpaper, as you can see from the scan below (click on the image for a larger version).A question to the 'urban doc' on syphilis is next to a question on vegan diets – the latter being illustrated by a picture of a semi-peeled banana
.It made me laugh, anyway. But I can't quite decide whether this was a deliberate move on the part of thelondonpaper's production desk or just a happy accident.And rather embarrassingly, our web editor just walked over to ask me something when I had the scanned article blown up to massive proportions on my Mac...
Image libraries: a cautionary tale 2008-03-31 09:06:00 A cautionary tale concerning image libraries.On the magazine I work for, we do use photographers but we also buy some of our pictures from a popular image library for £60 a pop. Recently, to illustrate a feature about debt, we downloaded a (presumably manipulated) photograph of a mousetrap that had as its base a credit card - metaphorically showing the dangers of credit. I would love to show you the image here on the blog but that would cost me £60, so I'm afraid you'll have to use your imagination.Anyway, we placed the credit card/mousetrap image on page and it wasn't until much later, when I was doing the final corrections, that I noticed the name on the credit card: Mr Hugh Jassdetter. Read it quickly and it sounds suspiciously like 'huge-assed debtor'. A little joke on the part of wh Read more:Image
Friday roundup no.2 2008-04-04 10:50:00 Last week I instigated a Friday
roundup but this week's is going to be rather short because Apus has already written two fine posts today.The job title 'hazardous goods manager' has been making me laugh – is that just a goods manager who is a hazard to others?Talking of job titles, our technical editor pointed out a great one that made it into the pages of our publication: 'knowledge transfer network manager'. Anyone know what that means?I'm thinking of trying the JargonFish widget on the Engine Room – anyone out there had any good/bad experiences with it?And has anyone noticed all the adverts that Adsense has been serving us for 'Sarah Beeny's Dating Site'? Exactly how many people is La Beeny looking to date?A longer roundup is promised for next week...
Word origins: hobby, limousine 2008-04-04 10:18:00 Here are a couple of examples culled from recent TV programmes.Evidently Henry IIX kept a stable of "hobby horses", leading to the use of the word hobby for any pastime that takes up a lot of time and money, though for some reason his use of decapitation hasn't survived as a synonym for divorce. And it seems limousine derives from the French sheepskins used to keep chauffeurs nice and snug.Who says telly isn't educational?A limousine, somewhat obviouslyTo reassure JD that I can still read as well as slob in front of the box, just today I finished The Last Corsair, a history of the WW1 German surface raider the Emden. It's an almost unbelievable yarn and well worth a read.Following their hair-raising adventures the survivors of her crew were treated to a 'bierabend' (beer-evening). Could th
Language isn't everything 2008-04-04 10:08:00 Having retired from the engine room (this is being written in my caravan at the seaside, the sun's shining and it's all rather wonderful) I have bags of time to watch telly. Recently I caught a late night showing of a movie called Redemption, having been warned in the TV guide to expect "moderate bad language".Fair enough, the language wasn't shocking – but the plot included a monk being bricked up alive and torture involving plugging in an iron and leaving it on the hapless victim's chest. Needless to say it put me off my cocoa and left me wondering if the TV guide's engine room might be well advised to pay less attention to offensive language and more to offensive plots.
Metro: How many white people in Britain? 2008-04-03 11:01:00 It's dodgy statistics time again, today courtesy of free paper Metro.In the midst of an feature about 'the state of the nation', based on a National Statisticians article on society, Metro makes the following claim:Percentage of UK population classified as white2007: 90%(England 65%)Um, given that England makes up about 50 million of the UK's 60 million-ish population, this just doesn't add up.If 90% of the UK's 60 million population is white, that's 54 million of them who are white and 6 million not. Even if every one of those non-white folk lives in England (which isn't the case), that still gives England a white population of 44 million, or just over 80%.So either the figure of 90% is wrong, or the figure of 65% is wrong. Or possibly both. When I spot something like this in a feature, i Read more:people
, Britain
The beaver wax puzzle 2008-04-02 09:19:00 A little language puzzle based on an event from my childhood.When I was young, I was a Cub Scout. On my first overnight camp, at the age of eight or so, I was excited to learn that we would be making 'beaver wax' that evening. But what was that? I knew what beavers were, and I knew what what wax was, of course, but I couldn't connect the two in my mind. Baloo and all the older Cubs seemed to know what beaver wax was, so I didn't want to ask and look foolish.My question to you is: what did we make that evening? (And no, it was nothing inappropriate...)Forest: a good place for beaver wax?
How heavy is the Apple MacBook Air? 2008-04-08 08:08:00 Gingerous has emailed in an amusing quote from a review of the MacBook
Air laptop (pictured above) which he came across in the April edition of IT Manager magazine:The MacBook Air is Apple
's take on the ultraportable notebook. At a mere 1.4kg and 4mm at its thinnest point and 19mm at its thickest (the hinge at the back), and weighing in at just 1.36kg, it's definitely ultraportable.Gingerous rightly comments: "Now I'm not sure on the grammar side of things (although it didn't read too well to me), but why does the weight of the laptop get mentioned twice and why are they different?"Um, maybe it depends on how full the hard drive is. Or does anyone have any better suggestions?The online version of the story sadly doesn't contain the offending copy...
Tory border force to 'pursue crime' 2008-04-07 11:08:00 There was a great quote in one of our news stories today, attributed to Shadow Home Secretary David Davis:“We would establish a dedicated UK border force with proper police powers to secure our borders and pursue crime
, from human trafficking to drug smuggling.”I was kind, and changed 'pursue' to 'tackle'. Not everyone who used the quote was quite as nice, though...David Davis: Vows to pursue crime
Metro: dubious festival fashion advice 2008-04-09 07:46:00 Even though festival season is still months off, free paper Metro yesterday ran a fashion guide to looking "festival-fab" and "Glasto-glam". It included this piece of questionable advice:Crowd pleaser: A big hat is a hit on so many levels: it's a sun visor, you can be spotted from a distance and, if all else fails, it will hide hideous hair.I don't know about you, but whenever I've been in a crowd at a festival, trying to watch a band but having my view restricted by someone in a massive hat, I've been less than pleased.On the plus side, wearing a big hat at festivals makes you an obvious target for projectiles such as mud, beer cans, and bottles of -um- yellow liquid...Don't be a dummy, choose a smaller hatWe've been critiquing Metro a lot recently, notably on its statistics...
Read more:dubious
Colchester Castle: mind your 'V's and 'U's 2008-04-10 08:09:00 Something a little different today. Gingerous has emailed in this photo of a (20th-century) plaque at Colchester Castle
:And he asks: "Why is the letter U is replaced with the letter V in all the text?"I've already sent a brief reply to Gingerous but I wasn't 100% confident in my answer. So, just for a change, I was wondering if anyone out there would like to have a go at giving an explanation...
Friday roundup: Apprentice, blogs, limos, Croydon 2008-04-11 10:37:00 Time for this week's Friday
roundup:***I'm a fan of The Apprentice
, which is in its third series here in the UK, and watching it this week I was amused to hear one of the contestants referred to (by Voiceover Man) as a "trained barrister". I didn't know that you could become a barrister without training. What's that – you can't? Then surely just 'barrister' would have done. Or maybe he meant "trained as a barrister but not practising as one..."Alan Sugar, silver fox***A couple of additions to our blogroll, both worth checking out: Copy-Editing Corner and Headup: the blog. Seems there are more blogging subs/copy editors than I realised... Talking of which, it might be time that I subdivided my blogroll as it's getting a little unwieldy.***Earlier in the week Apus wrote a post mentioning t
Pet Sematary. I mean cemetery. Or do I? 2008-04-14 10:33:00 A small admission. For many years, until quite recently, I thought that 'sematary' was just the American English spelling of 'cemetery'.My elder brother's copy of the Stephen King novel Pet Sematary (pictured) was to blame.As I understand, in the novel the sign for the pet cemetery is incorrectly spelt, having been written by children (the sign, that is, not the novel). The title of the novel refers to that incorrectly spelt sign. But how was I supposed to know that?Especially as I would be more inclined to say 'graveyard' anyway...
Two chipmunks and an Alvin 2008-04-16 10:36:00 I was in a shop at lunchtime that had a promotion on for the DVD release of the Alvin
and the Chipmunks film.It suddenly occurred to me: the title 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' implies that Alvin (unlike Simon and Theodore) isn't actually a chipmunk. Otherwise it would be 'Alvin and the Other Chipmunks' or 'Alvin and Two More Chipmunks'.But if he isn't a chipmunk, what is he? And aren't they all supposed to be siblings?
Shows, crows, and the busiest day of the year 2008-04-15 10:12:00 It's press day in show week – perhaps the busiest day in our magazine's calendar. With twice as many news pages as usual to sub, lay out, proof, correct, send down and approve, all of the production desk has a hectic five or six hours. Not to mention that our technical editor has to do all of his proofing remotely, as he's down at the show too.Actually we've gone to press now, which is why I have a few minutes to write this post. We'll find out tomorrow if there were any major screw-ups, I suppose.I did nearly let an embarrassing one slip through earlier – tapping in a headline for one story, my finger must have slipped, as instead of writing 'New Magnum cab draws crowd' I wrote 'New Magnum cab draws crows'. Quite a surreal image. Fortunately I spotted it before it went out on proof. I
Happy birthday to The Engine Room 2008-04-17 07:17:00 It's exactly a year since I wrote the first post on The Engine
Room, so I suppose today is the blog's first birthday. Happy
birthday to us!In that time, Apus and I have written 353 posts; we've had 19,477 hits (not including those from our own good selves); and we've made $10.60 in advertising revenue from AdSense. Hey, that's nearly enough to buy ourselves a beer each! I think we've earnt it.Without being too cheesy, thanks to everyone who has helped, commented, made suggestions, sent in articles and emails, linked to us or just acknowledged our existence.Oh, and seeing as it's the blog's birthday, I thought you might be interested to see our current top five Google searches (ie the ones where people actually click through to us). I've linked them to the posts in question:how many is seve
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