I'll start today with an occasional Word of the Day. Today's is "trifecta", from a story in The Straits Times (2 Nov) on the mid-term Congressional elections in the United States later today (US time).
The story said three key states -- Illinois, Delaware and Nevada -- were being closely watched by political pundits.
"Winning any of these Democratic seats would be a major Republican coup. Capturing all three -- the 'Trifecta' -- would be a stunning victory."
Checking Google, I found that one popular use of this word is in horse racing betting. A better who correctly predicts the first three placings (in their order) has achieved a trifecta.
Moving on but staying with newspapers, ST used an inappropriate word in a story (Page B6) on a man who dragged a woman into some bushes and raped her. One paragraph read: "He also promised to help her look for her mobile phone, which was misplaced during the struggle". Misplaced?
Compare this with what Today (also 2 Nov) said: "After raping her, Dai offered to look for her missing handphone...".
Spot-on. "Misplaced" conjures up something ludicrous -- during the struggle, she actually had the presence of mind to try and leave her phone in some place (among the bushes!), but ended up misplacing it!
So, as Phua Chu Kang would say, don't anyhow "pray pray" with words, when you are in the newspaper business.
No comments:
Post a Comment