Mr. Rewrite pleads: Let's end Mothers Day

This one's about as reliable as dear ol' Mom always leaving a light on for you: Whenever Ma's big day rolls around, you can expect hundreds of those paid to know better to refer to it erroneously as Mothers Day or Mothers' Day. Follow this Google News link to see.

For the record, it's Mother's Day.

Mr. Rewrite isn't claiming this one is easy. Veterans/Veterans' Day, Presidents/Presidents' Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day -- it's enough to drive someone batty. But those paid to know better should be able to keep them straight.

Having posted on this for years now, Mr. Rewrite knows the explanation by heart: Mother's Day was named to honor your mother. Why did someone decide this? Mr. Rewrite doesn't know and doesn't particularly care. He just wants someone to make the call so he can follow it.

Our friends across the pond have it easier. They just call it Mothering Sunday, removing the apostrophe angst.

Mr. Rewrite has a bureaucratese-caused headache

Mr. Rewrite thought the end of the semester would end his crankiness, but it's tough to smile when the paper hacks up passages like these in the wire service gristle:

• The human-caused fire just west of the small communities of Torreon and Manzano has burned about 21 square miles, or 13709 acres, since it began April 15.
• The human-caused fire, which is 55 percent contained, has burned 13680 acres and 59 homes since it began April 15.
• They'll also be mopping up areas where 59 homes have been consumed by the human-caused fire.
• By then, crews were tending to another human-caused fire in southern Arizona that charred about 325 acres west of Nogales.

Follow this Google News link to see many, many more of these monstrosities by language-challenged journalists.

Human-caused fire? The next time Mr. Rewrite finds the floor strewn with macaroni and cheese seasoned with cat litter courtesy of Rewrite Jr., should he announce that he's found a toddler-caused mess? The next time Mr. Rewrite hears a knock, should he tell Mrs. Rewrite that there's a human at the door?

Mr. Rewrite can't imagine anyone but a member of the bureaucratic hive mind spouting something this far from the realm of normal conversation. The word "human" doesn't work here. All Mr. Rewrite can picture is a caveman arsonist roaming the forests. "Caused by man" would be an improvement, but there should be something better out there.

Also, Mr. Rewrite HATES compound adjectives created for convenience rather than the transmission of information in a conversational way. Blech.

Folks, we have to protect the language from this garbage. Mr. Rewrite can forgive a government mouthpiece for using such language. It has no place in news articles.

Whatever they're selling, Mr. Rewrite isn't buying

It's been some time since Mr. Rewrite posted a misspelled sign. So here you go.

The word, of course, is clearance. Maybe the store owner can find a dictionary on sale at Borders.

No, Mr. Rewrite wasn't borne yesterday

An article about an NFL team's draft strategy said, "It's a philosophy borne out of necessity." This caused a rare double spit-take as Mr. Rewrite guzzled his morning coffee.

First, the word in this case should be born, not borne. Per Merriam-Webster OnLine, born in this case means "deriving or resulting from."

Second, writers should avoid "born out of" -- use "born of" instead -- unless referring to "born out of wedlock." This advice comes from Paul Brians' excellent book Common Errors in English Usage. Mr. Rewrite isn't sure of the grammar or usage reasoning behind this rule, but the "out" certainly seems redundant when he looks at the phrase.

Anyway, there's a lot more to borne/born than Mr. Rewrite wanted to deal with as the Celtics played a game seven. Both are past participles of the verb bear. According to Bryan A. Garner (cue angelic chorus), borne is used for general purposes such as "the cost is borne by the taxpayers." If you bear something in mind, it was borne in mind. Born is used in the fixed passive verb "to be born."

For an explanation that's much more coherent than Mr. Rewrite attempts to provide here, consult The Columbia Guide to Standard American English.

Meanwhile, follow these links to see who among those paid to know better didn't get the memo on borne/born and born of/born out of.

• borne out of
• borne of
• born out of
• born in mind

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Thanks to Tom in Texas for sharing this link to pictures featuring misspelled signs held by people trying to make political points. Don't miss it.

Don't add an additional headache for Mr. Rewrite

Mr. Rewrite is using the end-of-semester rush as his excuse for being so distant over the past few weeks. But this headline forced him to re-engage:

Out of combinations, state adds additional number

This qualifies as Another Redundancy Again (TM). Folks, if you're adding something you don't need to further clarify that the something added is additional or in addition to. It's like when Mr. Rewrite gets so worked up over headlines saying a starlet from Gossip Girl or some other program he's never hear of has given birth to a baby boy or girl. Readers can assume the product of birthing is a baby, a point apparently lost on the person who birthed this headline:


Mr. Rewrite thought he might just be cranky because of wrapping up semester-end projects, grades and the prospect of Mrs. Rewrite's loooong list of summer projects. But then he made the mistake of checking Google News to see how many articles by those paid to know better fall into the adding an additional trap. He also checked for adding an extra. The answer: way too many. Sigh.

add an additional
adds an additional
added an additional
adding an additional
add additional
adds additional
added additional
adding additional
add an extra
adds an extra
added an extra
adding an extra
add extra
adds extra
added extra
adding extra

Mr. Rewrite doesn't need an additional headache added the many worries facing him at present. Let's clean it up.

Mr. Rewrite doesn't need stanch supporters

Mr. Rewrite did a spit take when he read this line in an article today: "It hopes this will staunch the Post's estimated $50 million in losses." That's because Mr. Rewrite is a staunch supporter of keeping staunch and stanch straight.

Yes, gentle reader, these spellings are indeed variants of each other. But it doesn't take a purist to point out that stanch should be used when referring to stopping the flow of something such as bleeding, be it literal or figurative.

Staunch should be used for the adjective meaning steadfast.

The Associated Press Stylebook is just one of the reference books backing Mr. Rewrite on this point. That makes it interesting to follow these links to see how many of those with editors botch stanch/staunch:

• staunch the
• stanch supporter
• stanch friends

The principal takes a principled stand

Mr. Rewrite is ever so excited about The Paper, MTV's new reality series about a high school newspaper. As much as he loved last night's premiere, he was beating his head on the keyboard after seeing the mistake at right in a caption with photos from the opening party.

Since the target audience for this show and for this slideshow is young people, allow Mr. Rewrite to offer a virtual spit take. Yikes.

It goes without saying to this audience, but Mr. Rewrite will say it anyway ...

The head of a school is a principal, and principal also applies to things that are first in rank (e.g. "The principal reason Mr. Rewrite watched "The Paper" is he knows the teacher who's featured."). Principal can be a noun or adjective.

A principle, among other things, is a rule of conduct or a fundamental tenet. Principle is used only as a noun, though principled is an adjective.

Those paid to know better do well with principal/principle, but the few mistakes are grating enough that you'll want to send the offenders to the principal's office:

• school's principle
• principle reason
• principle concern
• moral principals
  

Finally, validation of Mr. Rewrite's "efforts"

Please share Mr. Rewrite's "joy." He placed this photo on The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. They must have quite a backlog of submissions. This is the first photo he offered, and it was a couple months ago at least. This gives him hope for his other submissions. Rah.

This is giving Mr. Rewrite a headache situation

An article says a government took an unusual action in response to an "emergency situation." Mr. Rewrite is left to wonder how an emergency situation differs from an emergency.

Another article says citizens can register with the Red Cross so loved ones can inquire about their welfare during a "disaster situation." Is this different, perhaps more serious, than a disaster?

Mr. Rewrite finds many, many articles on Google News that make reference to emergency situations and disaster situations. Those paid to know better also seem to report on a lot of crisis situations as well.

Folks, these constructions are the vilest forms of bureaucratic blather because they combine jargon with redundancy. A tornado, flood, dirty bomb, subprime mortage crisis, etc., is an emergency, a disaster or a crisis. Period. "Situation" adds nothing to any of these words but puffery that's best left to soulless talking heads with government paychecks.

Please stop doing this or Mr. Rewrite will get a headache situation.

Video Blog: Mr. Rewrite offers complimentary help

These video blogs are maddeningly difficult and time-consuming, especially at Mr. Rewrite's advanced age. But the sign at right inspired him to birth today's effort.

Assuming this is a free career guide, it is complimentary, not complementary.

For the sign to be correct, the career guide would have to complete or help to perfect something else, another career guide perhaps.

A hotel offers complimentary drinks, wireless, breakfast, etc. Mrs. Rewrite usually is complimentary of her husband's efforts on this blog, though she agrees that video blogs are maddeningly difficult and time-consuming, especially at Mr. Rewrite's advanced age. It's fortunate that she and Mr. Rewrite are complementary when it comes to grammar, spelling and language in general.

Here's more on complimentary vs. complementary from someone smarter than Mr. Rewrite (not difficult).

Is that enough for you? Mr. Rewrite needs a nap.