Criminal Sentence 604: No More!

From an online article about the Diamondbacks (go, team!!):

"To Gibson, however, none of those stats matter any more."

What's the difference between "anymore" and "any more"?

"Anymore" is an adverb that means "any longer": "I don't want to date you anymore."

You use "any more" alongside a noun: "I don't want to eat any more cake."

Criminal Sentence 603: Attached to Subject-Verb Agreement

From a comment about a blog post:

"Characters are what attaches me to a story."

Um. Subject-verb agreement is what attaches me!

Misspelled Tattoo!

An interesting article.

Poll Results 152

Here was the question:

How distracted do you get/how do you act when a book is full of typos?

I chuck it as soon as I see an error.	3 (6%)
I write corrections in the book but keep reading.	9 (19%)
I wince but read on.	32 (68%)
I don't let it bother me. No one's perfect.	3 (6%)

I recently read a non-fiction book filled with typos but I had to keep reading because I needed the information!

Criminal Sentence 602: LA Times Uh Oh Times Two

Thanks to Stephanie for pointing these two errors out.

1)

Here's a sentence from an LA Times article dated September 21:

A law enforcement investigation tracked a delivery of potent marijuana from Northern California to a home in Kentucky where two NFL players were at when the package arrived, according to a report by California Watch.

The yellow highlighting is mine. "Were at" is my question. It sounds bad and I would rephrase it, but is there a rule against using this construction? Do you need the word at?

You definitely don't need the word "at."

2)

Dear Bonnie,

I couldn't resist sending you this second sentence by another LA Times reporter:

Three Covina men are behind bars after they allegedly stole a 30-pack of Tecate beer from a market and attempted to escape but crashed a car and hit an employee who chased them, then one ran through a car wash and another left behind his ID.

Here's the link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/beer-heist-bungled-in-covina.html

What's wrong with the LA Times?

Good question, Stephanie!! That sentence is a disaster!

Criminal Sentence 601: Poor Girls

Seen on a sign at the local junior high:

"Girl's Softball..."

Too bad the school could find only one girl to play. Hope the team doesn't have to forfeit. (Oh, I guess they do have more players. That would be "Girls' Softball.")

If my kids were at that school, would I have a right to complain about this or would the staff just see me as an uptight parent?

Criminal Sentence 600: Feeling Threatened by an Apostrophe

Am I naughty if I hope the sign writer got a little bite from a rattlesnake because of this apostrophe error?

Poll Results 151

The question:

Which new officially acceptable Scrabble word do you agree should be allowed?

Thang	1 (2%)
Innit	1 (2%)
Grrl	1 (2%)
Blingy	13 (27%)
None should be allowed.	30 (63%)
All should be allowed.	1 (2%)

I think "blingy" is OK, but not the others.

Criminal Sentence 599: I Object!

From a Web site:

"This is not a hard and fast rule an many other factors need to be considered."

Um, it might be a good idea to proofread before posting!

Criminal Sentence 598: Clinky Link

From a blog post:

"...it's been a truism that most agents won't clink on a link..."

Interesting typo there. I've never clinked on a link!

Criminal Sentence 597: Need Another "And"

A subhead in today's paper:

"U.N. summit to focus on cancer, diabetes, heart and lung disease"

I understand there's a space issue here, but this list is not parallel. Here are the four diseases they're talking about:

cancer
diabetes
heart disease
lung disease

The third one in this list as written seems to be just "heart." If there had been more space, the subhead writer could have written "diabetes, heart disease and lung disease."

Poll Results 150

Here was the question:

How many people are in the picture described in this sentence? "I am looking at a photograph of Dominic and Rowan's mother."

One	28 (46%)
Two	14 (23%)
It could be one or two.	18 (30%)

Thanks to a reader for asking me this question. He correctly noted that the sentence is ambiguous, so congratulations to 30% of you. The photo could be of a man, Dominic, and a woman, Rowan's mother. Or, the photo could be of one person, a woman, who is the mother of both Dominic and Rowan. When you share the noun, you share the apostrophe, so if the woman is the mother of both boys/men, you need only one apostrophe.

To make certain this was not ambiguous, you would have to rewrite the sentence.

Criminal Sentence 596: Cap Chaos

How's that For odd Capitalization?

Poll Results 149

The question:

Which is incorrect?

I feel like it looks fantastic.	21 (25%)
I feel like sleeping more.	5 (6%)
I feel like you're not listening.	4 (4%)
None is incorrect.	21 (25%)
More than one is incorrect.	31 (37%)

Congratulations to 37% of you. The first and third answers are incorrect. You need to use "as if" instead of "like." For more info, check out this Grammar Girl episode.

Criminal Sentence 595: Not on Good Tems

From a Web site:

"We'll occasionally email you places matching your search criteria and will never share your email without your consent. Tems of Use"

I do not accept these tems!!

Criminal Sentence 594: Hurtful Sentence

From a book:

"Clinging to your anger and resentment only huts you."

Ouch. That hurts!