Friday, January 23, 2009

Lack of Precision

The AP summary of the Celtics victory over the Magic in Orlando includes the following piece of scene-setting:
People pleaded for tickets three hours before tip-off, standing outside in unseasonably chilly air, and inside, there was a distinct something-other-than-ordinary feel.
But wait, why is the cool weather unseasonable? We're talking about January 22nd! If it's ever going to be chilly in Orlando, we are at the precise moment in the exact season when you would expect it. The author clearly means that it's cold for Orlando, but that's not a function of the season, but rather the climate. Therefore, it's not unseasonably chilly, but unclimatically chilly, a phrase which, despite the handicap of including a word that isn't, is far more suited to the circumstance.

Also, the song Gancho al Corazón (which serves as the theme for the soap opera of the same name) by Playa Limbo includes the line, Yo quiero vivir intensamente, or, I want to live intensely. That's ridiculous; how is an intense life in and of itself a reasonable objective? If your wife leaves you, and your boss fires you, and your ulcer flares up, and your lender forecloses on your house, and the police are investigating you for fraud, and the local gangster thinks you slept with his girlfriend, that's pretty intense, but it's also a nightmare. Why would they pick a modifier that is value-neutral?

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