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A blog about English language use, publishing and the media in general – brought to you by a sub-editor (copy editor) on a weekly UK magazine and his former chief sub.
If you have a question about vocabulary, grammar or punctuation, why not ask
Recent Posts Tagged With 'daily mail'
Scraper + scoop + ladle = scrudle
On Friday, Metro ran a story about the Scrudle, a plastic device which is "said to allow cooks to seamlessly scoop up equal amounts of ingredients without any spillages".It added:Scrudle, which rhymes with strudel and is a mixture of the words scrape...
The Turner Prize and Enrico David Enrico
On Monday the London Lite ran a short piece on the entries for this year's Turner Prize. Here's part of it:I feel sorry for the caption-writer on this one. David Enrico sounds a more plausible name than Enrico David (in my opinion).At least the Londo...
Paws for thought
There's a bizarre little story in today's Metro, under the headline "Cats know their right from left". Here it is in full:Cats can tell the difference between left and right, scientists say. And like humans, male moggies are more likely to use their ...
Beavers! Introduced to the wild!
A story in today's Daily Mail begins:They have not been introduced to the wild for more than 400 years.But yesterday two families of beavers were released in Britain – to the anguish of anglers and the delight of environmentalists.This implies that...
The eponymous bus (Priscilla)
Andrew Orange sent me the following scan from the Daily Mail; it's an opinion piece by Baz Bamigboye on the Priscilla Queen of the Desert musical.Andrew comments: "Lovely self-doubt regarding the use of the word 'eponymous'." Check out the final para...
Daily Mail: 'British Babel'
I'd like to write briefly about the lead story that the Daily Mail ran on its front page today. Here's the web version:English is a second language for one in seven school pupilsThe article seems to use the terms 'foreign language' and 'second langua...
