Monthly Archives: April 2018

There’s an obscure rule in the media that only the area of very large disasters is compared to the size of Rhode Island. Smaller, non-disaster areas, such as malls, high-rise office buildings, condo developments, are described simply in square footage. For example, a Boston Sunday Globe story, April 29, 2018, about the Wegman chain’s new supermarket in Natick Mall, outside Boston, reports that the market takes up 146,500 square feet…. Read Article →

“Team” is a wonderful euphemism beloved by corporate BS artists. There are no longer employees or workers or staff or laborers or help or wage-earners. Everyone is part of a team. Sounds like we are all working together, pitching in, the CEO and everyone else, all teammates. And now the team description is echoed by reporters and editors. What brings this up is an Apr. 20, 2018, Washington Post story,… Read Article →

A “glitch” is corporate BS for “Holy Cannoli!! We screwed up huge, man, huge!” In our dictionary, we define glitch as, “A screw-up worse than a hiccup.” Rick Frank, of Newtonville, MA., in a letter to The Boston Globe, April 24, 2018, gets it right. Headlined “In software, let’s admit that what were once ‘glitches’ are now ‘defects’,” Frank writes: “Regarding the recent ‘glitches’ in the state Registry of Motor… Read Article →

An obscure law of journalese requires headline writers to come up with groaners whenever possible. Thus, any headline about fishing must contain the verb hook, any business story about a bakery must have dough in the head, Victoria Secret quarterly reports are revealed, and whenever an old saloon goes out of business it’s ” The last call for…” What brings this on was this beaut of a groaner in The… Read Article →