Setting a example of good England

Time to put Grammar in a home.
You know those people who bore you to death by ignoring the content of television shows, news articles and emails and instead take pleasure in picking the spelling, grammar and pronunciation to pieces? Well I am one of them.

I understand that the teensy, weensy rules of English aren't terribly important in the touchy-feely, as-long-as-we're-all-understood-who-cares scheme of things, but I don't think it's too much to ask to have people who are paid to talk to us make an effort to do it properly. (Obviously I'm not paid to write this, or that last sentence wouldn't have been quite as clumsy).

This morning, when tuning in to Channel Ten's morning news as I was feeding His Majesty, there was a strange story about a training exercise at a Japanese zoo. Zoo staff were learning how to deal with large primates when they do their 'nana, but instead of a real animal, they were shooting tranquiliser darts at a guy in a monkey suit. Or, as Natarsha Belling put it more than once, "a ape suit".

It wasn't like she inelegantly split an infinitive, or mispronounced a foreign seven-syllable place name. The Designated Talking Head of Channel Ten's 11am time slot made a boo-boo that most kindergarten children have worked out of their system. Twice.

Do I really expect people to change the way they talk or write just because I whinge about it? No. Do I reserve the right to whinge simply because it makes me feel good? Lordy, yes.