Tuesday, July 28, 2009

'Drink Drivers'? Or Drunk Editors?

Oops.

NZ judge rejects drink [sic] driver's swine flu defense
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A New Zealand woman had a novel defense when she appeared in court on a drunk-driving charge: It was swine flu's fault.

That would be drunk. DRUNK.

Source: a local newspaper that recently laid off a good chunk of its staff.

UPDATE: A couple of people have written to let me know that in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, it's "drink driving." That is all jolly good/bollocks/brilliant for them. In the United States, though, it's drunk or drunken driving. SPOGG's clumsy point was that newspapers that lay off copy editors and fill their pages with wire copy will have all sorts of goofy things in their pages. Now back to our grammartini...

1 comment:

Carolus Magnus said...

For once, it was not the American English which ruined the Queen's English.

Congratulations!

Carolus Magnus
http://www.sackstark.info