It’s not about pulling a rope

No, we don’t want him to tow the party line. That would involve pulling some sort of line or rope.

Frankly, I don’t even care if he toes the party line, which would involve conforming to expectations and which is what the Yahoo! Sports meant.

How heavy was the line?

Towing a line involves pulling it behind you. If it was fishing line, it probably is an easy task, though it makes no sense in the context of this Yahoo! Style article:

If the writer meant that Ms. Miller’s toes were touching the line, then she was towing it, she was toeing it.

Was the line heavy?

I hope the line that the “fashion industry darling” was towing wasn’t too heavy for her:

Perhaps if the Yahoo! Style writer had consulted a dictionary he would have arrived at the correct word, which is toed. He might have even learned that arriving to should be arriving at.

It’s not pulling a rope

The expression is “toe the line,” and it means to conform to a standard or rule. It’s what the writer for Yahoo! Style should do:

Can we ban this headline? Are they wrong?

Let’s ban this headline on Yahoo! Shine. Are they grammatically wrong? Or should Yahoo! just hire an editor who can point out the failure to match a pronoun (the plural they) with its antecedent (the singular ad).

That’s gotta be embarrassing. Even more embarrassing than this little paragraph:

I presume the writer couldn’t decide if the market campaigns were degrading. That’s why she used the word questionably, which is an adverb that modifies degrading. The other goof is simply a missing word; a mistake I’d overlook if it were the only one in the article.

If I were to confront the writer about this article, she’d probably deny any wrongdoing:

When a writer can use the wrong idiom and the wrong word in the wrong idiom, ya just gotta admire her creativity. If you’re towing the line, you’re dragging a rope. If you “toe the line” you follow the rules. I think she meant “blurring the line.” But the article wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining if she had written that. Finally, there’s the whole question of the Kardashian the writer is alluding to. Is it Kim? Is it Khloe? Is it misplaced punctuation. Probably the latter (or ladder as the writer would say):

An  article from Piper Weiss wouldn’t be complete without a mismatch between a subject (which is plural) and its verb (which isn’t):

While we’re thinking about banning stuff, can we ban this writer? She can’t be good for the language.

Pulling the party line

Pulling the party line doesn’t make a lot of sense. But that doesn’t stop the reporter for Yahoo! News‘ “The Ticket” from using the expression:

It would be better if the Yahoo! News staffers were toeing the line by using the correct word. Just sayin’.

Her hair must have been in piggy-tails

You just can’t beat those wacky writers at Yahoo! for serving up some of the best chuckles of the day.

I’m thinking the toddler’s hair was in piggy-tails. Or maybe the writer for Yahoo! Shine just doesn’t know any better. The word is towheaded, though I suppose tow-haired might work.

Lordie, Lordie.

In an article about Madonna’s daughter Lourdes, this Yahoo! Shine writer gives us an unintentional laugh:

It’s hard to imagine what the heck the writer thought “head-to-tow” meant. Let me know if you come up with a rational explanation.

I’ve got an explanation for this error in the same article:

I think it’s just a result of carelessness and indifference to quality. Who doesn’t know how to spell Ashton Kutcher’s name? Oh, never mind.