Category: sightings

School funding issue dominates council debate
March 12, 2010

…The Republicans targeted what they view as waste in the city’s budget. They particularly rallied around an early statement by Craig that placed city government budget growth over the last decade at $83 million.

“I think that there’s room in that $83 million delta between 2000 and 2010 to take care of a lot of the problems in the schools,” Craig said. “Besides that, as I told you, the resourcing of the schools is idiotic. It makes no sense.”

…Trinkle fired back on that point, arguing that the city budget is currently at its 2007 level, and that the school budget is at its 2006 level.

“You can talk about magic money, you can talk about an $83 million delta,” Trinkle said. “But all money is green, and the fact of the matter is we have supported the schools well. Our schools are supported in the top third when you look at all cities in the state of Virginia.”

Oh, you guys. You do not squeak by on this one just because you referred to a difference. Your use of delta is unnecessary, pretentious and wrong. A delta does not “take care of problems,” any more than it compares to “magic money.” Frankly, unless you’re talking accounting, finance, mathematics or science, you should not be using the word. It’s useful only for padding your verbiage.

But at least now I know how my client picked up delta as a weasel word. Apparently, it’s out there in wide circulation — and on both ends of the political spectrum, as noted in the article. Everybody, for the sake of the children, please stop!

Reference: http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/239603

http://www.caseandpoint.com

Another suggestion, this time submitted via Facebook. Our reader writes:

Nothing like naming your software company after a misheard idiom.

I have not heard this one personally, but a quick Google search (I searched for “case and point” in quotation marks) reveals a small, but troubling proliferation of this incorrect construction. Will it become the next mute point?

— Otto E. Mezzo

References: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/case_and_point
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cas1.htm

“I think etiquette is spelt incorrectly…”

This forwarded by a friend (a designer, but I forgive her that) who recognized its rich irony. I did look spelt up and found that it is an accepted (chiefly British) spelling of spelled, but not before I replied that this client barley knew her English.

— Otto E. Mezzo

Leverage the strength of collective buying

We leverage best practices…

Leverage strategic partnerships with major vendors

I stopped counting after the third slide. The presenter really leveraged my attention away to a YouTube video of a lip-synching hamster. The twee rodent used not one word wrong and he used verbs.

— Otto E. Mezzo

“Sell your clients bundles under guise of collective buying.”

I have already covered under guise of as a bad, bad, bad substitute for “under guidance of,” but this is far, far, far worse. What this presenter was trying to say was, “Sell your clients bundles in the name of collective buying.” (Even better, try “Sell your clients goods in bundles, which will lower the price per unit. That’s collective buying.”) What he actually said was, “Sell your clients bundles and deceive them into thinking they’re taking advantage of bulk costs.”

And by the way, he was trying to sell us a bad Powerpoint presentation under guise of a merchandise bundling program. I wasn’t fooled.

— Otto E. Mezzo

“We do enablement of business solutions.”

Once upon a time, companies built websites. Then they allowed the development of solutions. Now “allowing development” is too active. So today we “do enablement.”

Except for the fact we spent two hours doing the enablement of nothing, it was a great meeting.

— Otto E. Mezzo

From Gina Trapani, web guru, whom I follow:

yes, let’s agree not to use the verb “leverage” when discussing business, marketing, and software. Leverage the word “use.”

Thank you, Gina! (http://twitter.com/ginatrapani/statuses/941183035)

The 50 Best Guns Ever Made

September, 2007
15. Smith & Wesson Model 500

Introduced in 2003, this 4 1/2 -pound monster of a double-action revolver is as much of a quantum leap over existing handguns as the Model 29 was 50 years ago…

A “quantum leap over existing handguns?” F&S has one thing right — this express revolver does not represent a quantum leap in the true definition of “sudden change.” For drama, though, it’s a game changer — literally, if not figuratively!