Candidates

So Texas Gov. Rick Perry has declared his candidacy for President.

 

I can hear his supporters singing: Praise the Lord and pass the tax breaks.

 

TV SPOTS -- AHA ! Division -- "If you suffer from painful and swollen joints, I've been in your shoes."

So that's why. Stay out of my shoes, you twit!

 

PHILLY BOOS -- Mayor Nutter criticized the "mob mentality" of rambunctious teenagers indulging in nightly escapades. Isn't "mob mentality" an oxymoron? Especially when applied to teenagers?

Philogisms

   What is it with Philadelphia TV news presenters? Have they forgotten the basic ideas of facts and grammar? One recent story on the NBC affiliate was about a woman who had "been following the Phillies on television for 94 years." Nice trick, since television hadn't yet been invented in 1917, and was barely getting started on radio ... if then. The video gadget had its first major public demonstration at the New York World's Fair in 1939, but commercial use was put off until after the end of World War II.  When was the first televised baseball game? I don't know. Look it up.
   The point of the story, of course, was the Phillies fan was herself 94 years of age, and was in the stadium for the first time, a birthday gift from her family.
   Second example, from another Philly station: "Between she and her husband, they take xx medications daily." Better phrasing would be: "Together, she and her husband take ... " Or, if you must use between, use the objective form "between the two of them, they take ..."