Ill Literacy

Just a couple of things that have popped up over the last couple of days that simulateously irk and tickle me--one of which involves, yet again, my supervisor's way with English. Jeff's company has been chasing some city work, and he contacted my boss about something, and got back an e-mail reply in which the word subtle was spelled "suttle". I don't suppose I should be shocked, and considering my oh-so-brainy coworker (who uses the word "prolithic" for prolific) pronounces the word sub'-tul, I suppose it's just to be expected.

The other one came in off the magic television box this morning--one of the local NBC reporters was doing a story about the impact on this area of new federal regulations on staffing emergency rooms. The effect was that emergency department honchos would be able to comply, but the actual details would have to be worked out on a day-by-day basis to figure out what worked best. The reporter said this would be "a trial by error process". Let's see, I've heard of trial by ordeal, and trial by combat, but not trial by error. Trial AND error, on the other hand...

Silly reporter person.
posted by Terry at 4:22:00 PM