Ria Bacon: editor & writer

Linguist with wanderlust,
From the hills of New Guinea to the halls of the Sorbonne,
From the beaches of Bassam to the fields of Friesland,
From the catacombs of Rome to the Blue Mountains of Jamaica.
From the heather of the Veluwe to the dust of Dakar ...

Currently resident in the Land of Sea with a small tribe of kids and Mr B.

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Currently translating a manual on how to make a handpump. Background research takes ages but gives great feeling of learning something new.
2 weeks ago
@RiaBacon helloooo! i've been suffering from exactly the same problem.
2 weeks ago
@lucypepper Good to hear from you. Real life is getting in the way of my virtual self. Maybe I should outsource the overworked part.
2 weeks ago
Fat tax now! RT @AP In 20 years, some 42 percent of the U.S. population will be obese, new government report says: http://t.co/ImZK2ETt -EF
2 weeks ago
@RiaBacon i read that as: Fresh post... random outbreak. Need more sleep.
2 weeks ago

Stet in a cloud

Ria fotografia

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Now hear dis!

FYI

Stet means "Let it stand" and is used by editors to indicate that the original text should be left untouched.

...in Arcadia ego is a pun on a painting by Poussin.

Stet is a proud member of


    expatriate

Contact

Ria[dot]Bacon[at]gmail.com

Ernesto has a problem


Music while you read, probably written by Winston Jarrett, but most definitely produced by Lee “Scratch” Perry.



Ernesto has an identity crisis: he doesn’t know if he’s a tropical storm or a hurricane … yet. On this cool flash tracking map, he hasn’t even reached name status, just “Tropical Depression Five”. Oh the shame of it! He won’t be able to look the other hurricanes in the eye after such ignominy.

Of course all that may change by the time he reaches Jamaica on Sunday morning. In such circumstances it’s good to know that others appear to be prepared. Take, for example, the American Adjusters LC web site, whose motto,

We work through the claims maze with speed its our job

indicates that they are obviously too quick to be bothered by punctuation.

The rest of the text is similarly unconcerned with minor details such as actually making sense. It is clear that they have done an automatic text insert of the phrase “hurricane Ernesto damage claims” at least once in every sentence, producing such rhetorical gems as,

American Adjusters LC has carefully chosen its staff to be able to give excellent hurricane Ernesto damage claims. We provide a speedy processing of hurricane Ernesto damage claims, hurricane Leslie damage claims and hurricane Florence damage claims. We are definite that with our competent and resourceful adjusters, you’d be pleased to have hurricane Ernesto damage claims with us. We guarantee that we employ high quality method in hurricane Ernesto damage claims to satisfy that needs of our customers.

Maybe I’m too much of a stickler about language use, but I wouldn’t trust an insurance company that can’t be arsed to be more careful about wording – it makes me wonder how careful they are in processing insurance claims.

Related posts:

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  2. Sidi Mansour vs Ma Baker
  3. Shopping for hurricanes
  4. Two cultures clash
  5. Big up yu batty, gyal II
  • http://ban-sidhe.com/blog/ Mathieu

    Couldn’t help playing madlibs with their prose, replacing ‘hurricane Ernesto damage claims’ with various (scabrous) alternatives…

    ‘head’
    ‘party shots’, ‘private pictures’ and ‘rolls of film in discreet brown paper enveloppes’
    err… ‘intercourse’
    ‘handling special needs’

  • Ria

    Oooh, yu wicked!

    Redeemed by “scabrous”, however.

  • http://ban-sidhe.com/blog/ Mathieu

    It’s a lovely word, I think. :-)

  • http://imagined-community.com/blog jennifer

    The bit about the American Adjusters was very funny. The flash tracking of Ernesto was quite a bit scarier, especially since I just read that Ernesto is now a hurricane and is heading for Jamiaca. Be safe!

  • http://www.grannyp.blogspot.com grannyp

    Please tell Ernesto – but in plain prose so he understands, not like this – not to turn east and head for the Canaries instead like his uncle (aunt?) Delta did last year. Tell him to avoid Jamaica too, while you’re about it. Better than insurance for sure.

  • Pingback: EBRmx : El Blog de Rodrigo — ‘Ernesto’ se dirige a Cuba, la amenaza sobre Cancún sigue latente.