Pecked To Death by Chickens

All those irritating little things…

Photo by Thomas Iversen on Unsplash

I’m the first to admit that I am not a man of infinite patience. My grouchiness is close to the surface, a core element of who I am. However, it would be neither fair nor just of me to jump on every little thing that gets up my nose. Not only that, but there would be precious little left of the day if I did! But just once in a while, it’s worth blowing off steam, right? So here goes.

Newscasters and commentators are on about the so-called ‘referendums’ that Russia has held in captured territory. Yes, they were obviously fake, rigged, illegal and generally despicable. But that’s not what annoys me. What annoys me is supposedly educated and professional newscasters, reporters and commentators talking and writing about ‘referendums’. There is no such word. The plural of ‘referendum’ is ‘referenda’, you morons!

While we’re about it, the same rule applies to ‘stadium’, the plural of which is ‘stadia’. This solecism arises mostly among sports commentators and pundits, however, so is mildly less irritating as most of them are former sports persons and thus ipso facto unlikely to be intellectual giants!

My grandchildren are talking about ‘axeing’ people questions etc, and my daughter is not correcting them. If she doesn’t start soon, there’s going to be a row!