Friday, October 30, 2015

A few things that bug me

Here's a list - you may not agree, but it's OK!  We all have our "fingernails scratching on blackboard" moments, and these are what trigger mine these days.

1.  Headline news on TV that has complete disregard for the journalistic standards of who-what-why-when-where-how.  This morning, TV news reported that a girl had caught the Bubonic Plague from a flea bite while camping.  Was this in Vermont?  Should I worry when walking in the town forest?   Then, last night, TV news (Fox) reported that an airplane caught fire at a Florida airport.  Paul's sister was flying back to Florida, so I listened closely.  What airport?  Hopefully not Fort Myers.  The plane was taking off, so I decided not to worry too much.   I was awfully glad to see Pat's photo upon landing, though.  Why aren't TV journalists more careful?

2.  The proliferation of poor punctuation, especially the use of the apostrophe s ('s) for the plural or possessive just about everywhere, even the newspaper which ought to know better.  They use style sheets (New York Times or Chicago), or so they tell us.  No, it's not "horse's for sale."  It's "horses for sale," unless, of course, they mean "horse is for sale" which they rarely do.  It's OK to use "it's" for the contraction of "it is" but that's the only time "it's" is appropriate.  Along with that goes the annoying habit of some to use "it's" when meaning a possessive.  Example: "it's children" means "it is children," but not "its children."  There is no apostrophe for the possessive of "it," people!

3.  The fascination with political polls at this stage of the game of electing a president.  Who cares if Trump is on top now and others are at the bottom of the pile today?  Tomorrow it will likely be something different.  And in November, 2016, it will be even different.  I don't pay a lot of attention right now, even though in neighboring New Hampshire, politicians are swarming the state.  (Note I did not say "politician's")

OK.  I'm going to crawl back under my rock for a while.  Actually, I'm going to do my volunteer shift at the VT Historical Society this morning, have lunch, shop for groceries, and sit down with a good book (with correct punctuation, of course!).

1 comment:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

the media in general bothers me right now and the past-I don't know how many years - what movie stars do really shouldn't be more important than what is going on in the world.
(my punctuation and spelling is not so good so I won't comment on that - but what the media considers important bugs the heck out of me)