Changing the oil

Your curmudgeonly language nitpicker reporting for duty.

On the way home Friday afternoon, I heard a WOWO newscast begin a report of new officials being sworn in this way: "A new era in county government began today." Now, "new era" has always meant to me a significant change. If a majority of the new officials were left-handed Asian women instead of the usual white males, that would be a new era. If a majority espoused the imprisonment of all gum-chewers, that would be a new era. You don't call it a new era for the mere installation of officials resulting from the orderly conduction of an ordinary election. It would be a "new era" in my personal transportation if I switched from my Pontiac to a Sherman tank. It is not one every time I have the oil changed in my car.

Then, right after that, was a commercial for some place in town that was having a YES, which was defined as a "Year-End Sale," and which was described, at least three times, as "our Year-End YES Sale." That is the same as saying, "Our year-end, year-end, sale sale." That drives the purists among us insane, but we see it on the news side all the time, too. "The FWCS school system," for example, which is saying, "The Fort Wayne Community Schools school system," or "the START Treaty," which is saying, "The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty treaty," which, of course, came from "the SALT talks," or "Strategic Arms Limitation Talks talks."

Huh. Changing the oil in the car as a metaphor for elections. I like that.