From The Rough Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson.
I read a lot about climate change because I think it's just the most fascinating subject. It has it all: death, destruction, drama, debate, politics. Isn't this a great mistake?
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
This goes beyond being a typo. (1/25/12 Update: "blue riband" is probably NOT a typo. See Anne's comment.)
From The Rough Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson.
I read a lot about climate change because I think it's just the most fascinating subject. It has it all: death, destruction, drama, debate, politics. Isn't this a great mistake?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Snort!
Wow, awful. We need to be editors. My grade school children might have caught that!
Okay. I can't decide if this post was a puzzle or a challenge to figure out why (or if) blue-riband was more than just a typo. It was like one of those un-understandable New Yorker cartoons that you post periodically.
After looking for definitions of riband and blue riband online, and reading a bit on Wikipedia and checking the nationality of the author of the climate change book, I came away with the understanding that there was not so much a typo as the use of a term not familiar to a US audience (though, apparently, to lots of other nations?). I have no first-hand knowledge of all this, mind you. Just reporting what I think I learned on the Internets.
Whaddya think?
I think, Anne, that you have an unfulfilled life-mission to solve mysteries and problems. It's part social worker, part big ole brain working, working, working all the time, part an oddball sense of humor.
(That was a terrible sentence but I think you get the drift.)
AND. I am beginning to think that you are right and I was wrong. Maybe this wasn't a typo. Once again, my beloved Wikipedia provides much useful information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Riband_%28disambiguation%29
Thank you for educating me!
Well, it was your "this goes beyond being a typo" statement that set me on the path of trying to figure out why.
If I were reading the book and came across "blue-riband," I would think TYPO, too.
I think what we have here is a somewhat pretentious (sp?) use of a term meaning "blue ribbon." Why not just use blue ribbon? The author is American, after all. Was he writing more for non-Americans? Well, maybe, considering the topic.
Anyway, we learned something new today, so it's all good!
Post a Comment