Serendipitous [was serendipidous]

[Dan Goncharoff]

Your complaints seem entirely misplaced.

A "staff writer" put these words on paper, not the speaker, who I
think is entitled to use whatever words she deems appropriate. A
newspaper is onbligated to spell them correctly.

My question is why a supposedly professional company like Gannett
allows stories to go up unedited, or edited badly.
DanG



On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 6:12 AM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Serendipitous [was serendipidous]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>A NJ Appeals Court has removed a "freeholder" from the county board
>>because of a previous judicial screwup that placed her above another
>>Republican candidate who had beaten her in the primary (albeit by a
>>small margin). The county is heavily Republican, so the presumption has
>>been all along that the winner of the primary would win the election
>>(she did). So now that she's been removed, there will have to be a
>>nominating convention to place someone in her office, then another
>>primary and another general election in November, in order to fill the
>>remainder of her term. Her response:
>
> http://goo.gl/6K3GY
>> "One thing I've learned is that politics is a very serendipitous
>> business," Nordstrom said. "My understanding right now is that I'm not
>> a freeholder. You have to take it in stride. I'm taking it one step at
>> a time."
>
>>Why "serendipitous"? How is this a happy coincidence? Did she simply
>>mean "unexpected"? Then why use the big words?
>
> She's a Republican.
> DAD
>
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