Time for this year's final round-up of language or grammar mix-ups spotted here and there. First, the ever-dependable USA Today featured this headline:
"Strangers Help Dog Get Home After Wandering a Thousand Miles"
It's amazing those strangers had any energy left to spend on helping a dog after they'd wandered a thousand miles.
Then there was the story referring to a "heroine overdose."
Did somebody read all of Little Women in one session?
Not a mistake, exactly, but an assault on language was the comment made by a representative of Alaska Airlines regarding a video showing baggage handlers having a contest to see who could throw a suitcase the farthest. He said, "The optics of this video are unfortunate." (And he claimed it wasn't a passenger's bag but one the handlers kept around for such amusement.)
Then there was an article stating, about something the author considered very important, that "the importance of this can't be underestimated."
A rare sighting: somebody writing that a particular method "can be used without abandon." To do something with abandon means without restraint, inhibition, or worry, as in, "She dances with abandon." Come to think of it, I dance without abandon, so maybe that article was on to something.
Let's finish with another one from USA today. A review suggested that a particular pair of headphones would "wet your aural whistle."
It's whet, and I'm having a hard time picturing an aural whistle.
I wish you a happy new year lived with abandon, featuring fortunate optics and lots of heroines!
