Forget me not

More pedantry. This time, in an opinion article about the replacement of Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan with Ben Carroll, former Premier Jeff Kennett (1992-1999), gets important details about his own political career wrong. Kennett became Premier in 1992, defeating his predecessor, Joan Kirner, in that year's state election. Kirner became Premier in 1990 after the resignation of John Cain, and not 1991. 

 

Scooped

A newspaper journalist manages to correctly spell “its” and misspell “it’s” in the same block of text. Such are the perils of the 24 hour news cycle.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/labor-tells-voters-youll-be-worse-off-under-dutton-in-new-campaign-ad/news-story/b72d59fbf676effc9358519411b829d5

This is going to fade my curtains

Can you spot the error here? That's right. At the start of daylight savings, clocks are turned forward, and not back. 

 

Not understanding the gravity of the situation

What is it these days? Why don't people know how to correctly use apostrophes? Surely CNN would be capable of correct punctuation. When I was in university, a visibly embarrassed lecturer held a special class to teach some of his students how to use apostrophes. It should not have been necessary to run this class. 

Is attention to detail mandatory?

Do you want to work for the Australian Bureau of Statistics on the 2026 national census? You will see from the above screen grab that both full-time and part-time "pours" are available to successful applicants. Does this refer to complimentary tea, coffee, or other beverages whilst on duty?

 

Airball

In basketball, an airball is the term for a badly missed shot that fails to hit the rim or the backboard of the basketball ring. Here we have an example of a typographical airball. A prestigious newspaper masthead is now publishing copy of the quality you would typically encounter in a social media post. 

 

One needs to lift one's game

What is a "reverand?"

 

Unpalatable

The helpful folks at CNN excitedly shared details of the newly unveiled official emblem for the coronation of King Charles III. As a creative commons version is unavailable, it cannot be shown here. Reflecting the King's passionately held environmental concerns, it consists of a rose for England, a shamrock for Northern Ireland, a thistle for Scotland, and a daffodil for Wales. Its colours are in red, white, and blue, in keeping with the Union Flag. 

This report describes the colour scheme's emblem as its colour "palate." Palette is the correct word. Palate is the roof of the mouth, and palette is a range of colours. 

https://tinyurl.com/2p93ejk7

https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/30/palate-palette-pallet/

"Tickets, please."

Daniel Andrews, the current Premier of the Australian state of Victoria has a very high opinion of himself, as his government's grandiose election promises partially attest, such as building the biggest hospital in Australia, as reported in the pictured newspaper article, but not even he is capable of time travel, which is the only conceivable way to make retrospective election promises. 

In the tradition of Stuart Littlemore

The American state of Florida can't get a break. An eagle-eyed American friend brought this to my attention. 

One pedant to annoy them all

Speaking as an obscure blogger with absolutely no profile to speak of, there is little point in me expressing any opinions, whether positive or negative, about the new Lord of the Rings prequel series. Irrespective of this, it has made quite an impact. It launched globally, across 240 counties (sic) and territories. Nice work. 

 

I'm good at sport, so that makes up for inability to spell correctly

 

What is "Augus?"

Such is pedantry

Ned Kelly's famous armour

During the week, I listened to a three-part podcast series about famed the famous or infamous nineteenth century Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly (1854-1880), which is part of the Real Outlaws series. The production values are good, and the narrator manages to do a convincing Irish-Australian accent. One minor issue is a factual error. At the time, Australia was made up of separate colonial governments, each of which was led by a Premier. The narrator describes the Premier of the Colony of Victoria at the time of Ned Kelly's capture in 1880 as the "Prime Minister." Australia did not have a Prime Minister until 1901, when the first Commonwealth government took office. 

https://www.noiser.com/real-outlaws

Nyet

What is a "nissin?"

 

My finger slipped

There is no such word. Not even in Latin. I don't mind this series, even though I think that the Marvel Universe is oversaturated. Oscar Isaac is a good actor.  I understand there will not be a second series. 

Unintentional portmanteau

Here's a tip for the producers of this podcast. Please proof read descriptive text before publication. This is not a podcast about Willow, the current White House cat. 

Schreibfehler

Without wanting to be flippant about the serious threat of Russia invading Ukraine, which, at this time appears to be imminent, one would expect a better standard of quality control on website articles from a repected international news organisation such as CNN. When was the title of the head of Germany's federal government changed to "chanellor?"

 

So pedantic one feels like wearing a red t-shirt

In the fair state of Victoria, the highly ethical conduct of the political class is being revealed for all to see, with the Labor Party branch stacking inquiry. The practice has been rife for many years, going back to at least the 1990s. As political nerds would remember, in the 1996 Australian federal election, Senator Gareth Evans moved to the House of Representatives, winning the safe Labor seat of Holt. After the 1998 election, not wanting to spend another term in opposition, he decided to resign from Parliament to pursue other opportunities. He was not involved in a factional preselection battle with his replacement, Anthony Byrne, as this article erroneously states. 

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/ibac-adem-somyurek-accuses-daniel-andrews-bill-shorten-stephen-conroy-and-richard-marles-of-branch-stacking/news-story/f67729fdf8228d461187c2ce94a81eeb

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Truer words have never been spoken

No hint of irony at all here.