Things we\u2019ve been meaning to talk to you about \u2026<\/p>\n
Breaking news is broken<\/strong> \u00a0Remember when a standing ovation meant something? Now performers get them for just showing up. There\u2019s a misguided tendency nowadays to overdo things whose power is in their scarcity.<\/p>\n So it is that virtually every day, especially on the cable news networks, an urgent-looking message flashes across the TV screen: \u201cBreaking News.\u201d There was a time when you rarely saw \u201cBreaking News,\u201d and when you did, you knew something dire had happened: war, the death of a world figure, a devastating natural disaster, an international act of terrorism. Now, the phrase\u2019s force has been eroded by the media\u2019s crying wolf. I remember when CNN flashed \u201cBreaking News\u201d to inform us that a recently deceased pop star\u2019s autopsy results were due in four to six weeks.<\/p>\n Those who have been around awhile still react to \u201cBreaking News\u201d with visceral dread. To a young person, I\u2019m afraid, it\u2019s just another cheap attention-getting device. That\u2019s a shame, because there ought to be some such terse graphic to alert viewers when something major is afoot. \u201cBreaking News,\u201d once the perfect option, has been ruined.<\/p>\n College ain\u2019t what it used to be<\/strong> \u00a0One of Modesto Junior College\u2019s most successful former students is Jeremy Renner, a Best Actor nominee for his powerful work in The Hurt Locker<\/em>. A marquee at the college reported the glad tidings: \u201cFormer MJC student Jeremy Renner nominated for an Acadamy Award.\u201d Acada<\/em><\/strong>my? Let\u2019s hope the MJC signage department subsequently forged a working relationship with the MJC English department.<\/p>\n And speaking of signs \u2026<\/strong> \u00a0The city of Clovis in central California has for decades had quite an eye-catcher right in the middle of town, a vintage Art Deco billboard that reads: \u201cClovis Gateway to the Sierras.\u201d<\/p>\n Memo to Clovis: Make that \u201cGateway to the Sierra.\u201d \u201cSierra means saw-toothed mountain range,\u201d says the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs. The Sierra Nevada Alliance, a conservation organization, chimes in: \u201cThe Sierra Nevada is a single, distinct unit, both geographically and topographically \u2026 Strictly speaking, therefore, we should never pluralize the name\u2014such as Sierras, or Sierra Nevadas, or even High Sierras.\u201d<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t this something Clovis would be aware of? It must have come up at some point. Removing that last s<\/em> from the sign would probably be a simple task. Come on, Clovis. Don\u2019t be bullheaded about this. Such obstinacy sends the wrong message to impressionable young Clovisites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Things we\u2019ve been meaning to talk to you about \u2026 Breaking news is broken \u00a0Remember when a standing ovation meant something? Now performers get them for just showing up. There\u2019s a misguided tendency nowadays to overdo things whose power is in their scarcity. So it is that virtually every day, especially on the cable news […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,37,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-spelling","category-vocabulary"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5297,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions\/5297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}