shorts and a halter, eh?

[winterbadger]

Another stupid sports writer who doesn't get it

On top of all the other idiocy in this piece, the sentence "I love the equestrian events as well, although riding around 30-odd years ago on a big placid mare in the summertime wearing shorts and a halter doesn't really make me a candidate for dressage" really springs out. No matter how you diagram this sentence, either the horse was wearing clothing or the author was engaging in some early pony play.

This is why you have editors--to stop you from looking this stupid. This is why you should listen to them.

Comments

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

She was wearing shorts. The horse was wearing the halter. ;-)

[winterbadger]

That may be what she meant, but that's not what the sentence says... :-)

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure that's what she meant! LOL! :-) I thought my sentence structure bad was!

[shy-kat.livejournal.com]

Not that it fixes the mess, but I assumed it was shorts and a halter-TOP (on the woman not the horse)

[winterbadger]

Another quite credible interpretation. But for someone who is paid for her writing, she doesn't do it very well. (Let alone being an idiot about soccer...)

[rolypolypony.livejournal.com]

That's probably what she means, but I admit I read it as she was in the shorts and the mare was just in a halter! I think we should all write in and demand to know just what she meant ;)

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

For the want of a comma . . .

[winterbadger]

I fear she's beyond simple punctuation. A re-education in the English language seems to be needed.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

*shrug* It's not great style, but making "wearing shorts and a halter" a non-restrictive clause inside a pair of commas pulls it back to the original subject. It then becomes a person riding and wearing, as a pair of gerunds.

And I'd say a re-education of time, manner, and place is certainly in order.

[what-a-charmer.livejournal.com]

From your fellow novelist, and editor, it astounds me how many people manage to fuck up the English language, as though the only requirement to graduate from school was being able to drool all over one's homework.