Curved Yellow Fruit Law and many, many.

The Curved Yellow Fruit Law of Journalese prohibits using the same noun or adjective twice in one sentence. The Law was named after an editor rewrote a sentence to read, “Banana planation workers were striking for higher pay for picking the curved yellow fruit.” Two great illustrations of the law were in a column in the Boston Globe, Dec. 16, 2016, with the lede sentence: “When Donald Trump recently attacked a local union president in Indiana, many political observers wrote off the missive as the president-elect defending his controversial deal with Carrier to keep jobs in the Hoosier State.”

That’s a two-for: Missive for attack and Hoosier State for Indiana. But wait, there’s more in the column, but in violation of the Law: “But Trump changed that by deepening the divide between the rank-and-file members, many of whom supported him by historical proportions, and their leadership, many of whom supported Clinton.” Score that one a double many.

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