Word Minutia
Files this under "People With Too Many Minutes In Their Day". As in someone who knows that they have exactly 610 minutes left in their day to annoy others. A caller:
"I was just listening to an interview on NPR and when they were done the interviewer thanked the guest for being there and the guest said "I'm happy to have been here." Now since they were still there shouldn't they have said "I am happy to be here" and why would you air something that wasn't exactly correct?"
Me: (Silence while I try to wrap my dum dum brain around this question)....(more silence while I think about telling the caller that my breakfast eggs just told my stomach "I'm happy to have been here")....I don't know, I think you could probably say both.
Caller: Well aren't you the college people over there? Shouldn't you know?
Me: The college people are actually all over here right now, we are having a keg party in one of the production rooms. None of us know how to spell though, or construct sentences. Thanks for calling, you've still got 608 minutes left today.
The clear implication was that whilst the interviewee was "happy to have been there" he was NOT happy to have been interviewed, or at least was unhappy about some aspect of the interview. Which begs the question...why not?
The best solution I think is for the interviewer to say something like, "Thank you, Professor Chump" and EDIT IT RIGHT THERE. We don't need extra verbiage from the "guest" -- we've heard enough already.
Posted by: 2cents | June 28, 2008 at 12:02 PM