Sometimes errors are so egregious that I just gotta come right out and say it: The yahoo.com writer and editor and/or proofreader responsible for this are idiots:
Did anyone bother to do a little research? A little fact checking? “Fatal Instinct” is a movie that parodies mysteries and thrillers from the ’80s and early ’90s. One of the movies it spoofs is “Basic Instinct,” the movie that Sharon Stone is best known for.
There’s not much to positive to say about this article on Yahoo! Shine. But I give the writer props for spelling Hillary Clinton’s name correctly. But I gotta take off points for the expression “in that time” when it doesn’t refer to an actual time period. (The writer meant “since that time.”)
Any professional writer should know that the idiom is not “baited breath,” unless it involves earthworms. The idiom is “bated breath,” meaning “reduced or lessened breath” or a state of almost stopping breathing as a result of a strong emotion like fear.
No shots to the head here, and no headshots, which is what the writer meant:
I don’t believe it was Ms. Clinton’s BlackBerry that went viral, but a picture of her with a BlackBerry.
Twitter followers are usually of the human type:
Don’t you wonder if someone has people followers, what other kind of followers they also have? I know I do.
The writer for Yahoo! omg! is so sure of the spelling of Colbie Caillat’s name that he or she misspells it the same way twice:
Less arrogant writers would Google the name.
‘Ere’s an ‘int for you: If a word starts with an H sound (like, oh, say, maybe historic), precede it with a not an.
Maybe the editor for the Yahoo! front page ‘as a Cockney accent and drops the H at the start of words.
OMG! When did Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie get married? Is it possible I missed the wedding, or is it more likely that the writer for Yahoo! omg! screwed up?
Was the Yahoo! Shine editor too stubborn to use spell-check or a dictionary when she wrote this?
Yahoo! staffers continue to amaze me with their new and inventive ways of abusing the English language. That’s one misspelling I’ve never seen before. Here’s a hint to the writer: If you can’t pronounce a word correctly, don’t try to spell it phonetically.
Someone could use a little civics lesson over at the Yahoo! front page:
The U. S. Congress is often referred to as Capitol Hill, which is the location of the U.S. Capitol (the building housing Congress) in the U.S. capital (which is Washington).
What could possibly be wrong with this excerpt from Yahoo! Sports’ “Prep Rally” — besides the wayward apostrophe?
The article is not about anyone named Hayes. It’s about a father and son whose last name is Harvey. The brilliant writer finally realized his mistake — well, one of his mistakes — and made this correction:
Now the name is right, but the plural is wrong. The plural of Harvey is Harveys — no apostrophe.
It’s been 24 years since Ronald Reagan occupied the White House. Long enough for the writer at Yahoo! News to forget how to spell his name:
