Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Conversation with Bob

Bob Warr was digging along the edge of the yard.  There was a flat of marigolds sitting nearby.  I stopped to pass the time of day.  He seemed pleased to entertain the interruption.  He stood and leaned against his side of the fence.

We chatted generally about the weather, as guys are wont to do.  This led to Bob's observation about the news reader the previous evening reporting on the floods in Texas.  "She was reading along and as she neared the end of the report she said, 'The rain fell at a rate of two inches per hour and the rivers overflew their banks.'  That," he continued, "was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing.  Imagine what I was seeing in my mind's eye as I tried to picture rivers overflying their banks!"

That is just wrong on so many levels.  Grammatically, editorially, educationally, meteorologically, and in general fluvial and riparian behavior.  Ah, the joys of the twenty-first century.

Bob's report is accurate.   BBBH and I were tuned to the same newscast.  We both heard the same thing.

13 comments:

Jim said...

I have a post fulminating in the back of my brain about why I almost never watch local TV news anymore. This just adds fuel to the fire.

Shelly said...

I understand the pain completely.

Anonymous said...

Some might think this might happen more in the smaller markets but the 'big city' news readers around here are the pits! And they are not young either...they should know better...

vanilla said...

Jim, looking forward to that post!

Shelly, and after we tried so hard.

Grace, we have a local newspaper
for which I am thankful
but to mark grammatical errors
would take ink by the tankful.

Pearl said...

There's all kinds of talking going on, and very little thinking...

Pearl

p.s. You asked why Stephanie the Tattooed Faced Lady would ask for $11 and be satisfied with $2. Probably because $2 is better than nothing! :-)

vanilla said...

Pearl, the ratio of talking to thinking is staggering. As for Stephanie, probably a good guess. Seems reasonable.

Lin said...

I can't watch the news anymore. All that talking drives me crazy...and they talk about nothing most of the time. Ugh.

vanilla said...

Lin, they do say darn little; and belabor it, too. Then the weather person taking seven minutes to tell us the current conditions and his guess for tomorrow's conditions. Sheesh, as you say.

Murr Brewster said...

I don't know. That kind of locution cheers me up no end. I'm still floating after reading something in the paper a year ago about the earth rotating on its access. You too can turn curmudgery into joy. It's not like we're going to be able to change anything.

Vee said...

A lot of rivers have overflown their banks this year.

When we lived in Olathe in the past, we got our morning laughs while reading the local newspaper. The errors were abundant and often funny. We are back in Olathe now so we need to resubscribe to that source of amusement.

vanilla said...

Murr, apparently you and Vee(see below your entry) get your jollies in a similar manner. I appreciate those, and you come to mind, who have fun with wordplay and are good at it. Very entertaining. Somehow, though, when I seek news I feel that the language gaffes could cast doubt upon the reliability of the source. I am a curmudgeon.

Vee, by all means, subscribe to the paper and buy a gross of yellow highlighters.

Sharkbytes said...

Let's see... flow, flaw, flew. How about that?

vanilla said...

Shark, I see a flaw in there somewhere.