Tuesday the all-too-cheerful-for-early-morning female newscaster on WXIA Channel 11 commented to her male cohort after a story about Utah that she didn't know Utah was called "the Beehive State" and--why was that anyway?

Were you guys asleep during history class or what? The honeybee is the symbol of Utah, for its industriousness. When Utah was up for statehood at the end of the 19th century, the area was called "Deseret," which means honeybee. One of the conditions of statehood was that the state be renamed to Utah. (Junior high school American history class material.)

Today on the crawl at the bottom of the screen they had a squib about the fellow who survived diving into "Niagra" Falls. Unless you're living in the Buck Rogers universe, bucko, it's "Niagara." (Elementary school geography and spelling classes.)

Sheesh. This is a news program done by professionals. Is it too much for me to expect them to know these things?

My particular pet spelling peeve this week is "reign." As in "I was given free reign..." or "the President is giving free reign..." I've seen it misspelled five or six times already. Hello! "Reign" is the tenure of a king or emperor, or even an "energy czar." The term is "free rein." You know, like a horse--loosening the reins so he can run? A metaphor for allowing power or imagination or ambition to run free like a horse? More junior high school stuff...

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:17:00 AM

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