Nuptial Vowels

My mother was a high school English teacher in the Philadelphia public school system back in the late 60s. I was thinking about her yesterday as my husband and I corrected our daughter for the 9,999 time about pronouns: “Me and Kelly were thinking that….”

“KELLY AND I,” my husband and I thundered simultaneously.

I remember my mother correcting my similar contortions of the English language. I would roll my eyes at what I considered her “English teacher” pretensions. In addition to being a stickler for proper pronoun usage, she had, what I considered, an odd vocabulary. For instance, she would “eschew” rather than “avoid,” “abstain,” or “do without.” And when she answered the phone and the caller asked for her, she would respond, “This is she” instead of the more relaxed “speaking.” And, finally, she would never begin a written sentence with the word “and,” as I’ve begun this one and the one preceding it.  No one’s perfect, Mom. At least I’m not a felon. Yet.

I tell you all this as a preface to sharing a piece I read in the Miami Herald this morning.  I offer this in contrast to what the Washington Post’s ombudsman wrote about the glut of copy-editing mistakes in the Post recently, turning me off with his lead, “When it comes to typos and syntax, retired English teachers and armchair grammarians delight in playing “Gotcha!” with The Post.” (I wrote about this in my January 18th post).  It was a reactive and defensive column that did little to assure faithful Post readers that the mistakes were being taken seriously.

The Miami Herald piece, on the other hand, sought out a retired schoolteacher for her critique and took what she had to say to heart.  It’s worth reading.