Editor's Corner

I hope that you’ve enjoyed Robert Alden Rubin’s collection of malapropisms from Going to Hell in a Hen Basket: An Illustrated Dictionary of Modern Malapropisms. Today is the last day I’ll be sharing from this book, but I’d like to do another give-away if anyone is interested in reading through this book or giving it as a gift! If you are interested, just email me the first few words of the title. On second thought, just send me an email that says “malapropisms” and I’ll draw a random winner by Thursday, December 24.

Just like last time, I have a couple of other books to give away as a bonus, so you really have three chances to win:

· Signspotting: The Art of Miscommunication

· More Badder Grammar!

Good luck!

· tarter sauce
Some sauces are tarter, some are sweeter, but few are made with cream of tartar (potassium hydrogen tartrate). Tartar sauce gets its name from the French sauce tartare (named after the fierce Asian Tartars for its tangy taste). Its main ingredients are mayonnaise and mustard.

· ten-yeared professor, ten-year track position, tenure tract
It usually takes four to six years for a published junior professor to get academic tenure. Tenure, from the Old French to hold, helps guarantee academic freedom and job security. A scholarly publication might be termed a tenure tract.

· rent is in the rears
Confuses behind in the rent with the rent is in arrears (owed). Or perhaps a person who pays his bill with hams.

· toe-headed child
Few people spin flax from tow (bundles of flax fibers) anymore, so the expression tow-headed child (to describe a child’s pale blond hair) may not make much sense. The confusion comes from a bald baby, or a child with short blond hair, which might resemble a pale toe to some. [KC – A child that looks like a hairy toe? Now that’s a real looker!]

· wheelbarrel
A wheelbarrow gets its name from a wheeled version of a stretcher on which cargo or human bodies were carried, known as a barrow, or a bier. A barrel can be used to carry things too, and barrels, like wheels, will roll, adding to the confusion.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

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