 |
 |
Humble Pie my ass
[reply]
|
03/31/04 04:02 PM EST
posted by JER email web |
|
A few weeks ago I remarked that the cover of TIME magazine had a blatant typo, "Just Deserts For Martha". I'd thought "dessert" was the word they'd meant to use, but the American Heritage Dictionary says otherwise. TIME has a very smug response to the 550 readers who wrote to the magazine pointing out the typo:
"We answer all these criticisms with some satisfaction, defending our correct use of the noun desert, which, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "Something that is deserved or merited, especially as a punishment. Often used in the plural." Humble pie, anyone?"
I answer all this smugness with some immaturity: Suck my balls, TIME letter department, suck my balls. |
|
|
|
My reply to the TIME idiots:
We answer all these criticisms with some satisfaction, defending our correct use of the noun desert, which, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "Something that is deserved or merited, especially as a punishment. Often used in the plural." Humble pie, anyone?
I take issue with this response to your 550 readers that wrote in about your obvious mistake on the cover of the magazine. I too noticed it but opted not to write as it was simply a mistake. To err is human and in this case, TIME obviously did. Responding the those pointing out the misuse of a commonly misused word on the cover of a national (international?) publication with a pompous, arrogant, and smug letter only serves in making you look more the fool.
The problem with your response to your readers is this: Your cover article was in regards to Martha Stewart, the domestic detainee who can make anything from wrapping ornamentation from a cactus, to the most mouth watering desserts (not deserts) that your television has ever seen. It is apparent that your headline was intended to be a play on words, letting Martha have her “just desserts” as the saying goes. When enough of your loyal readers vocalized the mistake on your headline and TIME decided to write a response, you opted to take a very cowardly route out by attempting twist what was intended by the phrase, much like a 6th grader trying to justify his C- rather than a D+ on his most recent vocab quiz (no I am not a teacher), discrediting yourself even further. Rather than eating your humble pie yourself and admitting your flagrant misuse of a word in your oh so clever headline, you throw it back in the face of the readers who wrote in, and more arrogantly, into the face of the tens of thousands of readers that noticed your mistake and then just brushed it off.
Perhaps TIME did not make an error with respect to the usage of the word “deserts,” but TIME did make an error in printing the word rather than what was clearly intended. This is a point when you need to accept responsibility for a mistake and this is it. There are most likely several grammatical and/or spelling mistakes in this letter to you; however, if you were to point them out to me, I would surely accept their occurrence. With TIME’s situation, rather than accepting the fact that the word was probably intended to be something else with a much more relevant meaning, you took the route of scoffing and attributing our misunderstanding to our obvious lack of intelligence and the poor understanding of the English language. So TIME letter department, keep up the great work of alienating your readers when they write in! Nothing serves you better to cut your readership, right? Well, you just lost one.
|
|
Note: Only registered ShinyDonkey.com users
can post images. Only administrators can delete images.
|
|
|