Sunday, July 04, 2010

Linguistic Patrol: Time-Traveling Fish

Watching a program about Florida's Everglades on one of the nature channels in which biologists are conducting a survey of fish found in the dry-season 'gator excavations, and time after time, finding non-native species. "All exotics in this trap," one of them exclaims, and the voice-over announcer goes on to explain, "These fish are the ancestors of fish from fish farms and home aquariums."

...This means the problem in FL is even worse than I thought; those sneaky piscine invaders are going back in time and sneaking into our hobbies and food production! Quick, release the Burmese pythons! --What?

9 comments:

  1. It's those layers and layers od proofreading and editorial oversight.

    You were'nt supposed to catch that because you're not a highly educated ....ummmm....scriptwriter.

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  2. They're the only ones professional enough.

    Jim

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  3. First, upon silently reading your post, I inadvertantly combined 'The Adventures' with 'Time-Traveling Fish', and read it as Don Adams doing Maxwell Smart: 'The Adventures of the Time-Traveling Fish!'
    Second, the wv: undump
    (with your Neo-Victorian warning, no further comment)

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  4. Exactly what species of fish were they? Or did they say?

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  5. Now, do you people see why I drink so much, and when sober, hang out at sites like sciencemadness.org? (they have some good picric acid recipes....)

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  6. Kurt, I hate to say this, but you said "proofreading" first. That's "weren't", not "were'nt."

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  7. ...and "of," not "od" -- and so what, I make typos like that all the time. Everyone does.

    Bein' the blogger, I can go back and fix the mistakes I make here. Like the people who make documentaries otta.

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  8. These fish are the ancestors of fish from fish farms and home aquariums.

    I want to scream every time I hear that particular blunder. I hear it entirely too much, too ... along with its counterpart, in which "descendants" is used where "ancestors" is meant.

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  9. Well, one way or another the fish in the gator ponds and the fish in the aquariums are related.

    Likely they are all cousins once removed.

    From the tanks to the ponds! Taaaaa-DAAAA!

    ReplyDelete

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