DECEMBER 2, 2014
My memory stretches for about 10 minutes. You may be able to remember details from decades ago. So what exactly does it mean if we say something is the first, biggest or worst “in recent memory”?
Probably not much. Yet we use that phrase constantly. What it probably suggests to readers is something like: “Well, it seems as though it’s been quite a while, but we’re not exactly sure and we don’t have time to look it up.”
In many cases, a bit more reporting or some help from our colleagues in research could pin down the precise time frame we need. In other cases, “recently” or “in many years” or “in at least a decade” or some other phrase might be better — and wouldn’t depend on anyone’s “memory.”
Some recent unhelpful examples:
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The video included grisly footage of an assault on a Sinai checkpoint that killed more than 31 soldiers, the highest death toll among military personnel in recent memory.
Our researchers could presumably have pinpointed exactly when there was a deadlier attack. At a minimum we could determine that this was the highest toll “in at least X years,” or some such, rather than “in recent memory.”
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Allergan is near a deal to sell itself to Actavis for more than $62.5 billion, people briefed on the matter said on Sunday, potentially ending one of the most bitter merger battles in recent memory.
Well, there’s no objective standard for what constitutes a “bitter” battle. And there’s no indication of what time frame counts as “recent memory.” And even so, we hedge by saying “one of.” All in all, this isn’t much of a superlative. Maybe just say “a bitter merger battle”? Or avoid the “bitter” cliché and find another description altogether?
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The last handful of Smoke Sessions albums has been extraordinarily good, suggesting that the label has hit full stride. “The Original Mob,” a reunion of the master drummer Jimmy Cobb with several former protégés (Mr. Bernstein, Mr. Webber and the pianist Brad Mehldau), is not only Mr. Cobb’s best album in recent memory, but also a hard-bop case study, a cogent argument against obsolescence.
Presumably a serious fan could remember all of his albums. So is this his best, period? Or do we just mean “his best recent album”?
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Since 2007, Alabama has won three national titles and L.S.U has one. In 2011, No. 1 L.S.U. beat No. 2 Alabama, 9-6, in overtime in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in one of the most anticipated games in recent memory.
This is particularly awkward since it refers to “recent memory” predating the game, which itself was three years ago.
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It wouldn’t have been even a tiny shock if that collaboration had set the tone for the night. By all rights, this should have been the rowdiest and most open-eared C.M.A. ceremony in recent memory.
Here the point is further muddied, since the whole thing is hypothetical.
And While We’re Equivocating …
Here’s another vague and slightly weaselly word: “arguably.” Like “in recent memory,” it suggests that we want to make a firm declaration but can’t nail it down or just aren’t really sure. So what’s the point? If we need to qualify an assertion, let’s give readers a better idea of what we actually feel comfortable saying.
Some recent examples:
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But of all those with an interest in Kobani, there is arguably no party as invested as the fractious Kurdish diaspora, which has pulled together in the hope of creating a homeland among the rolling farms and pistachio orchards that are still technically part of Syria.
If we need to be tentative, we could say “few parties are as invested” or “there may be no party as invested.” But this seems like an assertion we could have just made, on the basis of our reporting, without the “arguably” dodge.
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Last year at its annual gala, LaGuardia Community College, arguably the most ethnically diverse college in the country, honored Marilyn Skony Stamm, the chief executive of a global heating and air-conditioning business.
There should be a way to measure this objectively, or at least some clear-cut statistic that would make the point without the “arguably” caveat.
The Double Hedge
Of course, if one caveat makes us feel safer, two provide even more security — and even less clarity for readers about what we are really reporting. For example:
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“People tend to learn science from somebody that takes them out and shows them cool things,” says Claudia Alexander. Now the planetary scientist has experienced what’s arguably one of the coolest things in recent memory: As a project scientist on the United States Rosetta Project, she is part of the team that put a spacecraft on a comet for the first time ever.
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The victories by Republicans on Tuesday were significant, but perhaps not the most momentous in recent memory.
That prize arguably goes to the Republican class of 1994.
In a Word
This week’s grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.
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In St. Louis, protesters shuttered Interstate 44 and marched along Grand Boulevard in the southern part of the city.
“Shuttered,” overused in any case, doesn’t make any sense for closing a highway, which has no shutters. Just say “closed” or “blocked.”
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Example 1:They are moves to attract more customers in the short run, but also hedges in a high-stakes gamble with the future of snow.
Example 2:Of course, the stakes seem higher with doctors, and different laws govern the profession, but Tom Demont, president of ALOA Security Professionals, said his association receives about three or four complaints a week from consumers who say they were defrauded by unlicensed locksmiths, up from about one complaint every other month 15 years ago.
Twice in one day for this tired cliché. Let’s give it a rest.
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In agreeing to extend the existing interim agreement, Iran assured itself of a continuation of the sanctions relief that had brought it $700 million a month in money that had been frozen abroad — something that might well add to the threat of new sanctions from the newly-elected Republican Congress.
Don’t use a hyphen for compounds modifiers when the adverb ends in -ly.
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They know it all, except — oops! — whom their partner will be. But why let a small detail like that interfere with preparations?
Make it who, not whom.
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“Even I thought that was pretty cool,” a normally nonplused Joe said after a peek at an animatronic dragon residing in the dungeon.
A frequent misstep. “Nonplused” means stupefied or bewildered. Here we meant almost the opposite, something like “unfazed.”
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It would involve a regiment of “safe” and purposeful appearances, both at home and across the country.
Presumably we meant “regimen.”
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Those unable to lay low enough found themselves paying steep fines for driving without a license. Or worse.
A surprisingly common error. The verb we want is “lie”; the expression is “lie low.”
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“I’m having fun going through the old show in my mind and thinking about throwing in more ad-libs and rock ‘n’ roll like we did downtown,” Mr. Mitchell said in a telephone interview, recalling the original runs of “Hedwig” at the Westbeth Theater and Jane Street Theater, where he sometimes performedlaying on stage when he was tired or while he was in the bathroom offstage.
And another. “Lying,” not “laying.”
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The mayor and the cardinal have gabbed about baseball and discussed Michelangelo with 4-year-olds.
The slang seems unnecessary.
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Duke German, 50, a resident of Tabernacle, said that his son goes to school with one of the boys who lives at the house, and that the boy was not on the school bus on Thursday morning.
Recorded announcement: Make it “the boys who live.” Or, if we wanted to discuss just one boy, make it “with a boy who lives at the house.”
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While the United States and Pakistan remain allies in the war on terrorism,tensions between the two countries have been frequently strained.
That is the nature of tensions. Perhaps we meant “relations” have been strained, or tense.
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The extent of the group’s links to Al Qaeda, though, have been a subject of fierce debate in Washington, where Republican critics have accused the Obama administration of trying to cover up a Qaeda role in the attack.
Agreement problem. Make it “extent … has been.”
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In her interview with the local TV station in Florida, Ms. Serignese said thatafter meeting Mr. Cosby in the hotel gift shop, he invited her to watch the show, and she was given a front-row seat.
Dangler. “He” did not meet Mr. Cosby in the hotel gift shop. Make it “Ms. Serignese said that after she and Mr. Cosby met in the hotel gift shop, he invited her …”
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Mr. Hauchard appears to have followed a similar path as Mr. Dos Santos.
“Similar” should be followed not by “as” but by “to.” Here, perhaps make it something like “a path similar to that of Mr. Dos Santos.”
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Ms. Morales is well-liked on the show, and many of her supporters were upset that her post was suddenly threatened.
No hyphen needed.
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Besides Woods, others with guest turns have included the Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin, who took down Donald Sterling; and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Michael Carter-Williams, who took on the news media, in general, and Stephen A. Smith, in particular (as if Smith, an ESPN personality, is representativeof all media, a shaky premise on which to build any solid argument).
The sentence is overstuffed and hard to read. Also, we needed the subjunctive, “were representative,” in this contrary-to-fact condition.
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Growing up in Burlington, Ontario, just outside Toronto, Heslip was not considered a cannot-miss star.
We followed our normal guidance against contractions right out the window. The idiom is “can’t-miss.”
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He accused an upstate New York prosecutor, Steven A. Pagones, of being part of a group of white men whom he said had abducted and raped the teenager Tawana Brawley, an allegation that a grand jury report showed had been fabricated.
Remove the phrase of attribution (“he said”) and it becomes clearer that we wanted “who,” not “whom.”
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Now a grand jury on Staten Island has been hearing evidence on the 2009 campaign for months. One person subpoenaed to testify was Karen Scharff, the executive director of Citizens Action, an organization that advocates on education, justice and health issues.
In careful usage, “advocate” is a transitive verb and is not followed by a preposition. Here, we could have said “concentrates on” or “focuses on.”
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UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations’ top human rights official called on the Muslim world to denounce the “monstrous” crimes of the extremist group that seeks to establish an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, calling its actions both a violation of international law and Islamic tenets.
Not parallel. Make it “a violation of both international law and Islamic tenets.”
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The uproar stems not from a desire by people here to smoke — only 17 percent do (a smidge higher than the statewide average).
“Smidge” seems both too colloquial and too vague for this news context.
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He continues to do so, but he says he has arthritis in his spine and cannot move like he used to.
Make it “move the way he used to.”
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Indian cities are already the world’s most polluted, with Delhi’s air almost three times more toxic than Beijing’s by one crucial measure.
The Times’s stylebook says this:
times less, times more. Writers who speak of three times more or three times faster often mean “multiplied by 3,” but precise readers are likely to understand the meaning as “multiplied by 4″: the original quantity or speed, plus three more times. For clarity, avoid times more, times faster, times bigger, etc. Write four times as much (or as fast, etc.). And do not write times less or times smaller (or things liketimes as thin or times as short). A quantity can decrease only one time before disappearing, and then there is nothing left to decrease further. Make it one-third as much (or as tall, or as fast).
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He has upset residents in the capital, where he has never been that popular, by praising Russian and Chinese leaders and by feeding a stubborn nostalgia among many Czechs about the Communist days.
This use of “that” is informal and seems out of place in a straight news context.
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The puppies are Molly and Troy, who are more or less Pomerian.
“Pomeranian,” of course.
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They’re not exactly the von Trapps trilling about edelweiss, but the Robertson family of the reality series “Duck Dynasty” wants to sing to you about faith and food, duck calls and swamp moss. And they’ve convinced a team from Broadway to bring their story to the stage, in Las Vegas for starters.
The stylebook says this:
convince, persuade. Convince should be followed by an of phrase or a thatclause: She convinced the teacher of her ability; She convinced her sister that it was too late. But convince cannot be followed by a to phrase; in such a case,persuade is required: He persuaded his sister to take the day off. (Persuade is more versatile than convince, and can be followed by any of the three constructions.)
