Bing Crosby The subject for discussion today may not seem important, but to The Grammar Grouch, it certainly is annoying. Most important, it’s a phraseology that is becoming ever more prevalent. Most important? Surely I meant most importantly. No, damn it, I didn’t. And the only reason anyone would think the ly has to be […]
House Speaker Paul Ryan About a week ago, a letter-to-the-editor in the Palm Beach Post made me laugh out loud. “GOP’s shell game with Obamacare” was the title the paper slapped on. Herewith: “So, let’s see if I have this right. Republicans want to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something, but they don’t yet […]
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This week is a big one for important anniversaries in the Palm Beaches and on a national level, two of them involving assassinations. We began the week by celebrating the birthday on Sunday of the person who contributed the most to this country’s civil rights movement, the Rev. […]
Dear Rep. Ryan, Dear Rep. Ryan, Someone suggested sending a Valentine card to the Wisconsin home of Rep. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the Republican-controlled House, calling on him to pull back the reins on his plans to push for privatization and paring of social programs that benefit the vast majority of people in the […]
Marco Rubio I became a member of Palm Beach Indivisibles this week, and at least some of us wrote a letter to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican lackey (sorry for the redundancy), decrying President Trump’s (ooh, it hurts to say that) deplorable choices of leaders for his administration Dear Sen. Rubio, Donald Trump […]
Have I become a more astute writer in the past decade or so, or has the writing community become more sloppy? Did I in decades past make the same mistakes that I continually see these days in newspapers and other media? I hope not, but maybe 10 years of copyediting late in my career made […]
President Donald Trump Last week, I heard on National Public Radio a discussion about the strife among friends and family engendered by the tumultuous political events prior to and following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. It reminded me of historical situations in other countries I’d read about, by which longtime friends turned into […]
The Grammar Grouch is more dyspeptic than usual today. The thing which has him in high dudgeon is that totally, woefully, abysmally wrong pairing of the prepositions “between” and “to” in expressing the distance in whatever context from one item to another. Please read those last five words again: from one item to another. In […]
Hillary Clinton Be wary of Health Sciences Institute, an outfit that promotes dietary supplements and dispenses alternative medical advice. I have no problem with the organization’s health activities or products it pushes. My quarrel is with its operators’ radical right-wing political positions, which it promulgates in tandem with the health messaging. Health Sciences sponsors Medix […]
Chuck Schumer Okay, the Republican health-care bill is dead. The big thing now is the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. I had assumed this was a done deal, and he would have no problem getting the votes. But Chuck Schumer, to his undying credit, says he’s opposing it all the way. […]