Bad language

Part I. It was rather amusing to see on a review for a desktop blogging application that it had a "three pain interface." Actually, using the application wasn’t at all painful.

Part II. On Twitter, Susan Orlean wrote, "Why oh why do some people insist on saying ‘eighteen years of age’? What’s wrong with "eighteen years old"?"

Those "some people" include Shakespeare, incidentally. This is from Cymbelline:

I had rather
Have skipp’d from sixteen years of age to sixty,
To have turn’d my leaping-time into a crutch,
Than have seen this.

In this regard, Jan Freeman of the Boston Globe is rather refreshing. She’s not one of those "pet peeve" grammarians, and she rather enjoys debunking those who are. Here’s a recent column of hers in which she discusses "peeveblogging." Enjoy.

Part III. Lastly, here’s one that at first puzzled me, and then almost made me laugh out loud: "[Icons] are great for styling lists and philanthropic links visual flair that is eye catching and consequential." Yes, I couldn’t understand it at first either. But try replacing the word "philanthropic" with "giving." See what happened? The writer decided to spice up his language by resorting to the thesaurus. Philanthropy is giving. No need to explain the rest.

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