Sitting in the catbird seat

from www.wordsmith.org

catbird seat (KAT-burd seet) noun A position of power and advantage.
A catbird (named after its catlike call) is known to build a pile of rocks to attract a mate and sit on the highest point around. This expression was often used by Brooklyn Dodgers baseball commentator Red Barber (right) and further popularized by James Thurber in his 1942 New Yorker casual "The Catbird Seat," in which a character often utters trite phrases, including the expression "sitting in the catbird seat".

"So, Stillking Films seems perched in the catbird seat. 'Things are going very well for us at the moment,' David Minkowski says."
-- Steffen Silvis; Stillking is Still King; The Prague Post; (Czech Republic); Apr 5, 2007.

From "The Catbird Seat":
... In the halls, in the elevator, even in his own office, into which she romped now and then like a circus horse, she was constantly shouting these silly questions at him. "Are you lifting the oxcart out of the ditch? Are you tearing up the pea patch? Are you hollering down the rain barrel? Are you scraping around the bottom of the pickle barrel? Are you sitting in the catbird seat?" It was Joey Hart, one of Mr. Martin's two assistants, who had explained what the gibberish meant. "She must be a Dodger fan," he had said. "Red Barber announces the Dodger games over the radio and he uses those expressions--picked 'em up down South." Joey had gone on to explain one or two. "Tearing up the pea patch" meant going on a rampage; "sitting in the catbird seat" means sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him. ... "

Loathsome -- not spelled as pronounced

From Garner's Usage Tip of the Day

loathsome

"Loathsome" is so spelled, even though the first syllable sounds like the verb (rhymes with "clothe") rather than the adjective (rhymes with "oath"). Perhaps as a result of the sound association, many writers err by writing "loathsome" -- e.g.:

o "An array of loathesome [read 'loathsome'] characters drifts through this anthropology of the urban undead." Chris Kidler, "Tama Janowitz's 'A Certain Age,'" Baltimore Sun, 8 Aug. 1999.

o "Severed Fingers and Toes (Gasworks) are extremely loathesome [read 'loathsome']-looking gummy chews, available at party stores." Charles Perry, "Extreme Treats," L.A. Times, 27 Oct. 1999.

o "The characters we first meet in 'Nurse Betty' are terminally dim, risible or loathesome [read 'loathsome']." James Verniere, "Zellweger Is a Reason to Love 'Nurse Betty,'" Boston Herald, 8 Sept. 2000.

loathe; loath; loth

From Garner's Usage Tip of the Day

loathe; loath; loth.

"Loathe" (rhymes with "clothe") is the verb meaning "to abhor, detest."

"Loath" (rhymes with "oath"), with its needless variant "loth," is an adjective meaning "reluctant." The verb spelling is often wrongly used for the adjective -- e.g.:

o "If you are at a dinner, sitting at the head table, you may be loathe [read 'loath'] to stand up and walk away because you are on display up there." Charles Osgood, Osgood on Speaking 80-81 (1988).

o "Even young fans, usually loathe [read 'loath'] to adopt the musical tastes of their parents, are bewildered." Edna Gundersen, "Pink Floyd's Retrogressive Progression," USA Today, 25 Apr. 1994.

o "And, although the would-be cheerleader from San Antonio is loathe [read 'loath'] to brag about it, she has created her own case for being selected." Amy Hettenhausen, "3 Cheers for Sance," Austin Am.-Statesman, 16 Nov. 1995.

How not to get in to college

WSJ.com - How Not to Get Into College: Submit a Robotic Application Click above for Sue Shellenbarger's column in today's Wall Street Journal about common mistakes made by college applicants. Gaffes include --

• Letting your mom sign her own name to your application.
• Plugging in the wrong college name when answering, "Why are you applying here?"
• Emailing the admissions dean 15 times to show your interest.
• Expounding on your sexual experiences in your personal essay.

For more examples, go to TheJuggle.com.

Parallelism -- another example

From yesterday's News Sentinel:

"Center Kelley Cain's 6-foot-6 stature affords her high-percentage shots. But she's still overcoming the effects of reconstructive knee surgery last year as well as colliding with a practice player earlier this month."

In The Elements of Style, Elementary Principle of Composition No. 15 is

Express coordinate ideas in parallel form.

We could fix the sentence above by changing "colliding" to "a collision."

Load v. lode

from Garner's Usage Tip of the Day:

load, n.; lode.

Although they have similar etymologies, their meanings have fully diverged.

"Load" (in its basic senses) means "a quantity that can be carried at one time" or, by extension, "a burden" {a load of work} {a load off my mind}.

"Lode" carries the narrow meaning "a deposit of ore," as well as the figurative sense "a rich source or supply."The correct phrase, then, is "mother lode" (= an abundant supply), not "mother load."

Although dozens of headline writers have used "mother load" as a pun (usually in reference to pregnant women), some have fallen into true error -- e.g.:

• "She worked as a computer programmer, but kept plugging away at the music. And finally, she hit the mother load [read 'mother lode']." Tony Kiss, "Messina Never Gave Up Dream of Music Career," Asheville Citizen-Times, 3 Nov. 1996.
• "This site is a mother load [read 'mother lode'] of investing and financial planning information." Ted Sickinger, "Web Review," Kansas City Star, 6 Apr. 1997.

Trying to trick us with the "ped" root

Here is a recent SAT Question of the Day:

Bolstered by his unflagging determination and ------- physical preparation, Tom Whittaker became the first amputee to successfully climb to the summit of Mount Everest.

A. fortuitous
B. assiduous
C. heedless
D. expeditious
E. pedantic

The Latin "ped" refers to the foot (as in a centipede or a pedestrian), so an SAT guesser with a little Latin might be lured into making a bad choice.

A "pedant" is a scholarly bore -- that is a: one who parades his learning b: one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge It comes from the Italian word pedante, for male schoolteacher.

So how did feet get associated with teachers?

It was back when a paedagogus (Latin) or paidagogos [from the Greek paid, foot + agogos, leader, same root as agent] was the slave who escorted children to school.