This Story Bites

Karen S., queen of finding badly written news stories, sends us this:

From a creepy story on MSNBC about a man who was bitten by the detached head of a rattlesnake:

Mike Livingston, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, said the area where the Anderson’s live is near prime snake habitat. But he said he had never heard of anyone being bit by a decapitated snake before.

“That’s really surprising [sic] but that’s an important thing to tell people,” he said. “It may have been just a reflex on the part of the snake.

First, of course, the Andersons live near prime snake habitat (not the singular possessive Anderson's). And then -- although if I were editing, I'd let this go -- there's the gerund "being" that needs a modifier(anyone's being) and then there's "bit" that should be "bitten." And then, there should be a comma between "surprising" and "but." And THEN, the biologist says the bite "may" (but he should have used might) have been a reflex "on the part of the (detached head of) the snake!" (you think?)So, seems to me, this article is just downright SNAKE-BIT, er.. SNAKE-BITTEN!?

Thank you, Karen, for doing our job so we can start our weekend early.