Has anyone tried the Press and Journal puzzlebook yet?
You know, the daily newspaper where every page has a sentence with either the wrong word, an incorrectly spelt word, a missing word or some other form of grammatical error.
Example 1, Fri 09 Aug 2019, page 58:
They absorbed plenty of pressure in the first half, content to let Rijeka try break them down,........ The missing word is "to", i.e. it should read "try to break them down".
Example 2, Fri 09 Aug 2019, page 20: "The team found some radioactivity in the grain. "But because distilling reduces ........."
The grammatical error is one opening set of quotes being followed by another set of opening quotes. The first opening quotes should have been followed by a set of closing quotes before opening new ones.
Another version of the puzzle is to not only find that sentence but then to work out what the correct word ought to be.
Another version of the puzzle is to select a page and see how long it takes to find the error on the page. Less than 10 seconds is good, 10 to 15 seconds is average, over 15 seconds is poor.
I tried it recently and managed to find the relevant sentence on all but one page, but given that page had "this page is left intentionally blank" written on it, I figured that must be why.
Seriously though, why is this happening? Is the editor (Alan McCabe) not doing his job properly? Is the newspaper unable to employ recruits from the school system that are able to spell or form sentences correctly?
I don't claim this blog is perfect but then I don't charge anything for it, unlike Aberdeen Journals who charge £1.20 for a copy of the Press and Journal.
School report: should do better.
