Wednesday, February 11, 2004
WHERE EVERYONE'S GRAMMAR IS ABOVE AVERAGE
Well, courtesy of Esquire Magazine (hat tip: Romenesko), I now know that the very first "ombudsmen" were Swedish government officials investigating complaints from citizens. So I guess it's fitting, given the Twin Cities' Scandinavian past, that our local paper has the longest lived (both in age: 81 and time served: 22 years) ombudsman in the country. Also, again fittingly, the one with the most boring and non controversial pet peeves: "adjectives and adverbs" (in stark contrast, The New York Times ombudsman takes peevish aim at the New York Yankees in his response to this question). Did Lou Gelfand have a shockingly maladroit Mad Libs experience as a child?
