I guess it's possible--you go over to the other side of the tree and hold it steady while I cut from this side.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Or, kickback...

Anyway, I caught this today.
Dead Woman Gets Federal Stimulus Check
I was getting ready to open it up and (yawn) they died recently. But then found this.
Ok; so he's not so good at math. But the real reason for my post (edited for dramatic effect that matches my thought process)
Ok; they article says it was the strict June deadline, but shouldn't stuff like that be cleaned up as time marches on? In other words, what was it doing on the list for 42 years?

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

I heard on the radio, 10,000 dead people got checks by mistake. This must be one of them.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Yes; that's part of the quote that I cut.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Wait, they've gotten theirs? I need to go check my bank account.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

So, in order to get all the money back that the government owes me, all I have to do is die, then kick back and relax for a few decades until they get around to mailing it out? Seems easy 'nuff.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Following pronouns in a story is hard enough sometimes. But; this one makes it even harder.
Local District Schools Close. Here's the references:
...a 13-year-old was...
...the teen kept a diary...
...A .22-caliber rifle and a pickup truck are also missing from her home...
...Calvin Riley, of...
..if you see him or know of her whereabouts...

Now; Is this a boy or a girl?

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Nice post. Made me thinking.

Somebody must've pointed it out to them, because it says "missing from his home" now.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Yeah, I figured they might catch up with it.
I don't mind some mistakes and corrections, but this does not seem like a mere typo. It's an obvious lack of thought, especially the contrast in the same sentence. For most people, an innocent slip. For a journalist, I feel it's unprofessionalism.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

I wouldn't even call it an innocent slip if it's something you've written down and shared. I'd call it sloppiness.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Yes; Written down, I agree.
I was thinking of the wrong words that come out of my mouth on occasion.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

I think it may be part of the trend towards gender neutral writing that is getting to forced that it takes an act of thinking to realize that gender neutral mode is utterly stupid when writing about a specific known individual with a known gender.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Mmmm. Before, "gender neutral" writing meant using the masculine pronoun for everyone, which led to some pretty ludicrous sentences as well. (Though apparently, teachers were generally referred to in the feminine, and always homemakers.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I've always used "they" or "their" etc. when gender isn't specified. Not because I think using "he" "his" is sexist, but because to me it makes more sense. If gender's not specified, shouldn't you acknowledge it as such, rather than ignore it?

"Someone broke into a home down the block. They stole a television and a box of frozen waffles."

Now occasionally I'd have teachers criticize that usage, saying that "they" indicates plural persons, but unless I'm interpreting it wrong, Dictionary.com agrees with me:

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

That's the way I've always done it too. "They" can mean multiple persons, or a single unknown person. "That's what they say" doesn't have to be a consensus. It could be the opinion of a single person.

Now, if I'm writing something that uses examples, I tend to Use Bob and Jill as my exemplars. That was I can use "he" and "she" and maintain clarity. At least as far as the pronouns are concerned.

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I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.

Funny, "Bob" is the generic male name I use most, but I don't have one particular female name I use.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

The Word Processor I used at the time had a hard time with names. Most would come up as incorrect so I had to find some that were real words. Originally, hers was "June". I'm not sure how I stumbled on Jill being acceptable, but it's easier to type.

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I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.

I've read that Chaucer used "they" as a generic pronoun. I'll let you know in a couple of days, when I finish The Canterbury Tales.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I have no complaint about "As the person crossed the street they didn't look for traffic and was run over."
The part I was complaining about is more along the lines of: "As James crossed the street they didn't look for traffic and was run over."

Ie. using gender neutral in a situation where gender is known.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

I do. It should be "and were run over."

Well, according to this guy, there are 12,750 women named "James" in the United States....

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Even when it's singular they?
Even more important to not use gender neutral then.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Yup. Just like it's "you were" regardless of whether "you" is singular or plural.

There you go.

EDIT: To replace "are" with the correct "or".

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Some copy editor is going to be in trouble. On the front page of Yahoo (I'm sure they'll change it soon), one of the news headlines reads:

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As above, so below

This was from CNN.com's main page a few minutes ago. A great example of unfortunate truncation due to column width.

[See screen shot]

Attached Thumbnails

 

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

New Math?

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*

They had 78 temporary students enroll specifically to not come to school.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Ok; let's go with some more weather forecast bashing.

'Near-normal' Atlantic storm season expected
I know the statistics are an important tool in the weather forecasting business, but translating that to what the public understands can sometimes just sound bad.

Or about the same probabilities as throwing a dart.

I would bet that forecasting would be easier of the weather didn't change.

(Yes; I understand what they're saying, but they should have put a bit of thought into how it sounds)

At least they touched on the most important point.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Another nice headline on the yahoo portal:

It's kind of hard to imagine Robert Gates wearing pink boxers and flip-flops as he gives praise to some soldier, but I guess stranger things have happened. . . It would be easier to imagine if it were J. Edgar Hoover. . .

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As above, so below

And just 18 hours or so after Atlantis lands, Google has this headline on their portal site:

I guess they have 20/20 hindsight.

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As above, so below