[Ads-l] WOTY: "fake news"

[David Barnhart]

Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that there is often not just one WOTY even
if "supported" by sub-WOTY's, such as most or least likely to succeed.  

Maybe there should be multiple WOTY's from a variety of human activity
without crowning one King or Queen of the pile.  Even within the sciences a
biologist's WOTY may not satisfy the Physicist or Astronomer; the
mathematician's WOTY certainly does not measure up to that of the nurse or
doctor.  Certainly the same can be said of the journalist's choice and that
of the teacher.

Regards,
David


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Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 10:01 AM
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Subject: WOTY: "fake news"

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Subject:      WOTY: "fake news"
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Perhaps "fake news" should go into the hopper. It may have swung the =
election.

The durability of the fake news phenomenon was brought home to my = husband
and me yesterday. I had gotten an insistent message (yet again) = from a
reader of our blog about the origin of "the whole nine yards," = demanding
(more or less) that we acknowledge the WWII machine-gun = ammunition belt
explanation.=20

We replied at length by email, recapping the recent 19th-century = findings
and providing a history of the development of the belt-fed = machine gun.
All demonstrating of course, that the theory was = impossible.

He shot back a reply within a minute: "You are really full of shit."

People who believe etymological folklore cling to it as tenaciously as = do
those who subscribe to fake news.

Pat O'Conner (http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog =
<http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog>)=

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org