Last Wednesday (the 22nd), Eric Alterman wrote:
Read Jay Rosen on O'Reilly and Greg Easterbrook. On the latter, we concur. "Everyone needs an editor."
Of course, Easterbrook's first name is Gregg, not Greg. In a wittier author, I would have suspected that the misspelling was some kind of self-referential joke, but here I think it's just incompetence. That would also explain the slovenly ambiguity of the first word. Is it an imperative (go read Jay Rosen right now) or a past indicative (I recently read Jay Rosen but can't be bothered to include the clarifying pronoun)? The latter seems marginally more likely, but who can tell? What with the ambiguous pronunciation of 'read', a present indicative (I am reading Jay Rosen every day) is not absolutely impossible, though very unlikely. It may not be true that "everyone" needs an editor, but Eric (not Ericc) Alterman could certainly use one.
I would have linked to the particular entry, but Altercation doesn't seem to allow that, and doesn't seem to have any archives either.
Posted by Dr. Weevil at October 26, 2003 10:39 PMGood on ya mate. I'm sick and tired of sloppy usage, vague or imprecise constructions, and the overall disregard for grammar. Haven't been by your site for a while, but I intend to correct that.
Posted by: jc on October 29, 2003 07:18 PMAnd what about that 'we concur'?
Did he mean he and Mr. Rosen, or is that a 'royal we'?
Just wondering.
Posted by: old maltese on October 30, 2003 12:12 PMDr. Weevil,
I would place money that Eric meant the imperative on the "read". The lefts fondest desire is to tell me what to do on a daily basis.
Fred
Posted by: Fred Jenson on November 2, 2003 06:36 AMAmen, Fred.
Posted by: Haws on November 5, 2003 02:43 PM