A quantum of pet peeves
To rant or not to rant?
Ah, what the heck, it’s been a while since I’ve gone on a good pet peeve rant and the release of the new James Bond movie provides a perfect opportunityto do so. Quantum Solace. What is with the title of this film? Quantum Solace. Sounds cool, right? But what does it actually mean? Quantum (from the Latin quantus, meaning how much) is generally used only in physics and is the smallest discrete quantity of some physical property that a system can possess. By broadening the definition to mean a quantity, measure or amount (presumably a tiny one) the title of this flick can basically be boiled down to Small Comfort, which makes sense because the last time we saw the famed British super agent he had just been betrayed by a woman he had fallen in love with.
For me, this falls under the category of the old KISS principle. Why not just call it Small Comfort, a better title if you ask me, but not very cool and therefore not
very Bondish, I suppose.
Another pet peeve related to people trying to sound cool when simple would do just as well is the use, or, I should say misuse, of the verb comprise. It drives me crazy when people (especially journalists who ought to know better) say something is comprised of something else. The “is” and the “of” are redundant. And what’s wrong with saying something is composed of something else? Doesn’t sound as cool, I guess, but at least its proper.
So, what’s the big deal? Who cares, right? Well, that’s the whole idea behind pet peeves. Basically they are inconsequential things that make you nuts to help keep your mind off consequential things like global economic meltdown and innocent children starving in Africa.
Uh oh, better get back to my language peeves before this devolves into a column about something that matters. Here’s a good one: why do so many people mispronounce the word familiar? It’s not fur-mill-yer. There is no second “r” in this word. The root of fa-mill-yar is family, but you don’t hear people going around saying fur-mill-ee.
I know, now I’m really going off the deep end of inconsequential. Well, how about nuclear, then? New-clee-ar. How difficult is that? Too difficult, apparently, for the guy who has had his finger on the “new-cue-ler” button for the last eight years. It wasn’t a speech impediment, either, simply willful ignorance. If you’re going to hold Armageddon within your grasp, the least you could do is learn how to pronounce a simple word. By the way, the new guy who will have his finger on the button come January knows how to pronounce it.
Finally, I just have to go off on the subject of adverbs and adjectives. I generally cut Joe Sixpack some slack in this regard, but the demise of the adverb is becoming a disturbing trend in broadcasting, and even print media (just what are they teaching in J-school these days, anyway?) This ain’t rocket science, folks. All you have to do is stick a “ly” on the end of the adjective if you’re modifying a verb rather than a noun.
“He drives carefully;” versus “He is a careful driver.” You don’t have to hold an advanced degree in English (or even a high school diploma) to get that distinction.
That brings us to the end of what is surely an inconsequential column, but I feel much better having ranted.