Friday, 12 October 2012

Average October temperature of -14°C?

Context and common sense suggest that the minus sign shouldn't be there.


Thursday, 11 October 2012

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Canadian Real Estate Board, or CREA

The Star might be forgiven for assuming that the national umbrella group for local real estate boards would also be called a board (it's not -- it's called the Canadian Real Estate Association).

The bewildering thing is the reference to CREA in the very next paragraph!


Wednesday, 18 July 2012

RIM loses nearly $150 in lawsuit

Lucky for RIM, apparently extravagant awards like these are often overturned.


"was forced replaced the board"?

After a long hiatus, sloppy editing is back!


Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Flack or flak?

Although it seems to be gaining acceptance as an alternative spelling of flak, the obscure "flack" originally meant huckster, press agent, publicist or some other form of spin doctor.

In contrast, the more commonly used (or at least intended to be used) "flak" means military shells or anti-aircraft artillery (perhaps from WWII German anti-aircraft guns known as Fliegerabwehrkanone), but has taken on a metaphorical secondary meaning of excessive or abusive criticism.


(Reference: http://www.word-detective.com/2009/07/19/flack-flak/)

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Literally caught red-handed?

To be fair, this isn't the Star's error.  Rather, it's a direct quotation from a decision of Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy:


(See http://canlii.ca/t/fq2d0 for the decision.)

This is a classic misuse of the word "literally".  When something is being described literally, it means that the thing is exactly as being described, with no exaggeration or figures of speech.  It cannot be used merely for emphasis or dramatic effect.  So you might literally turn red when you're embarrassed, but you can never literally eat your words, no matter how much you regret them.

In this case, the subject might have been caught "red-handed" (that is, in the act of committing a crime or with clear evidence of it about him), but probably wasn't literally caught red handed (unless his hands were actually red when the police showed up).

(Sidenote: according to my Google searches, "red-handed" originates from finding the blood of a victim on a murderer's hands.)

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Job fare?

Being somewhat carnival and bazaar-like, they're called job fairs.

Friday, 3 February 2012

Gobbledygook photo caption


What are "allegedly assets"?

Newspapers must be careful not to state unproven allegations as fact, in order to avoid libel lawsuits.  Perhaps this was a clumsy attempt at such a hedge.

Monday, 16 January 2012

Mandarino or Mandarini?

While most of the article refers to the subject of the article as Mandarino, he is once referred to as Mandarini.


Sunday, 1 January 2012

In tact or intact?

When something survives undamaged, whole, it is not "in tact" but "intact": http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/intact.html.


Which reminds me of another common error: people saying "taking a different tact".  The correct word in this usage is "tack", which is a nautical term for the direction a boat sails in relation to the wind.