ABQjournal: Astorga Alone During Stop, Police Say By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer
Marcantel said Astorga, 29, knew that had McGrane, 38, taken his driver’s license and went back to his squad car, the deputy would have known about the warrant within minutes.
ABQjournal: Mayor Had a Reason to Speed By T.J. Wilham, Of the Journal
Last Friday, Schultz invited myself on a ride-along.
OK, I am officially an old-fart — something you probably already knew about me. I have to say these two abuses of language get to me, especially seeing both by the same writer on the same day in two separate articles.
Understand, I shattered my glass house years ago. I’m a recovering perfectionist whose recovery began with recognizing I can’t be perfect nor can I expect that of anyone else.
Even before that, I was shaken from incipient language-fascism by my great language mentor (after my Mother, of course), my brother, Dan. When, as a young-fart, I attacked some change in language that offended even my young ears, he set me straight on the inevitability of change and the irony of that progression from “misuse” to mainstream and the reversal of fortunes that comes when “saying it correctly” suddenly sounds archaic. Shakespeare would be appalled by my very best English and I sometimes don’t get his.
In fact, the conundrum of celebrating the richness of language is that one cannot define what is wealth. Which is not meant to give in and say “it’s all good” (snap). At any one moment, it’s not all good — context rules.
Ah, but what of journalists? Their context has its own rules and stylebooks. Is something that would be terrible in the context of oratory or literature more acceptable on newsprint? More than likely.
All that aside, these two examples really grate on me. I hope T.J. Wilham can rise above the colloquial. I wish he had an editor who would help him do so. mjh
I love that you pointed this out. “Had went” is my all-time biggest
grammar complaint. Probably because a loved one had a reaaaalllly bad habit of saying it. “Had went”: I still shudder to hear it!
Maggie- From one M to another, thanks for visiting. // For those who don’t know, Maggie is one of the M’s at
http://m-pyre.blogspot.com/ , a local progressive blog I recommend you visit. peace, mjh
Me and some others would like to know where the word, “gone,” has went!
Have you got it?
“me and some others” – WOW
I think it’s some others and I…..
Maggie:
I’m with you sister! HAD WENT = WORST EVER…UGH! I CAN’T TAKE IT! if this generation had went to grammar class, I wouldn’t be
hurling right now, thinking about “had went”. And speaking of journalists, sports journalists are in the “had went” business these days.
Awful… as are “had came” “had flew” “had ate”, etc…
Another killer: using “positive” as a noun, instead of its intended
adjective purpose. This sux: “Yeah, this experience was bad, but we’re going to try to turn it into a positive.” Huh?! A positive
WHAT?!?!?! ranting, ranting, ranting…