Friday 10 July 2009

Not much of an epitaph

I don't mind headlinese per se, but some practitioners are better at
it than others. I was taken aback just now by this headline at BBC
News:

Botched op footballer's wife dies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/8144551.stm

Not only is it poorly formed, its tone seems disrespectful.

I notice that their previous story on this topic had the headline:

Ex-footballer wife's health blow
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/8074102.stm

I presume the writer didn't like the look of two possessives in a
row...

Wednesday 1 July 2009

appreciate of

"I would appreciate of this book." comments a guy on Facebook from Dothan, Alabama.

Appreciate of? Where did that come from? I assumed, correctly, that my find wasn't a one-off. A quick Google search turned up:

If you have decided on your career objectives, we would appreciate of description of them. (Alaska)
If you have items you think we might be able to use, or if you would like to contribute your time to assist in one of the many projects we have on-going, we would appreciate of these contributions, as well. (Georgia, US)
I would appreciate of synopsis of when and how fetal cells for transplant are obtained. (unknown)
I would appreciate of any help. (Mauritius)
Some of the required data are still missing thus we would appreciate of any completion of the already available data set. (Germany)
We thought that you would appreciate of being able to read the older Samui (and beyond) news any time. (Thailand)
Stick a bird feeder or two near the pond, I'm sure the birds would appreciate of full smorgesbord of nuts and mozzies. (Devon, England)
Should contents, layouts and designs on our site harm the rights of third parties or violate legal rules and regulations we would appreciate of being informed accordingly without costs. (Germany)
i would appreciate of your responses. (Malaysia)
I would appreciate of getting readers views of their measurement needs related to downloadable media. (unknown)

There's also a suspiciously large number of instances of "would appreciate of" that clearly mean "would appreciate (it) if". I suppose these could all be typos, but perhaps there are people who actually say "of" in this context also.