Four wonderful words

[semperfiona]

All four of these were to be heard in the wild today in an editorial on NPR's "Fresh Air":

screed

meretricious

claptrap

splenetic[ally]

I love it when words like these are used on radio or TV programs. NPR is a particularly good habitat for them, but vocabulary on radio and TV, and even in many books, seems to be deterioriating lately.

Oh, and don't get me started on my rant about proofreading in books...

Comments

[wldrose.livejournal.com]

I love the word Screed aint it grand

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I tried to sit through a local newscast the other night. I couldn't, I had to walk away. I can't bear to write what was said. But when people who use words for a living can't manage to get through a paragraph without mangling the grammar of the language four or five times, I despair.

I'm not the favourite sound tech of one correspondent who I shall not name but who is no longer with NBC (one of the reasons being he just couldn't write). I would correct his grammar all the time. I started out doing it quietly, but it got so atrocious that I wound up doing it in front of anyone. I try to comfort myself with the fact that the network still has a modicum of standards. But standards are slipping there, too. I see examples of it far too often.

Do not get me started on news radio.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

My car radio is on KFOG about 25% of the time (mornings, specifically) and KQED (NPR, PRI, etc.) the rest of the time. I adore Marketplace, personally, not because I am into finance but because I could have sex with David Brancaccio for his voice and the way he uses language.