With the Olympics being hosted in London, there is always a tendency for journalists to try and plug in quaint British phrases into stories.
Sometimes they work, and sometimes they really backfire.
Emily Parnell wrote in the Kansas City Star’s “913″ news magazine (8/8) that she had an extremely hectic schedule and then “I really buggered it all up. I accepted a part-time job.”
Most readers likely thought “buggered it all up” simply meant something similar to “really screwed it all up.” They would be wrong as the Star’s Public Editor Derek Donovan learned from a reader who had lived in the UK for several years (LINK).
“… But if you are not aware, the term ‘buggered it all up’ is not something which should be spoken or written in polite company,” noted the reader. “The first word is English, which has extremely deviant sexual meaning. I was appalled, having lived in the UK for 20 years, to see it in the newspaper. Anyone else familiar with the wording, or who happens to be British, would not be happy with its use. Just so you know. I don’t want you to embarrass yourself again in print!
Donovan politely agreed with the reader and told his readers to look up the word themselves (we did: “Penetrate the anus of (someone) during sexual intercourse; sodomize.”).
“…But yes, the emailer is absolutely right that it has a literal meaning that is much more commonly known to those familiar with British English,” wrote Donovan. Here, I’d actually bet the columnist meant to use “boogered up” — a phrase I’ve heard since I was a little kid in the Midwest. Yes, it probably traces its origins to “buggered.” But it also has a much more benign association for American ears with the icky meaning we all know from childhood.”
Donovan said he changed the online versio of the story “to a more genteel variant.
“This makes me think of a recent incident that made the rounds on the showbiz blogs, when a member of U.K. boy band One Direction used the notorious “c-word” in public,” noted Donovan. “Most Americans I know consider that one to be the worst curse in the language, because of its intensely sexist and derogatory nature.
“But I also have several Brit friends who toss it around somewhat freely, telling me it does have the same literal meaning, but it’s far less caustic to them — more on the level of “jackass” to Americans. These things can go both ways.
WANNABE COLUMNISTS
This is just one more reason why The Star needs to get rid of all these wannabe columnists they’ve got who generally deal in nothing other than chit-chat (i.e., pure fluff) week after week when the paper should have them out turning up some real news. I am assuming here, of course, that Emily and those of her ilk are being paid something by the paper for their pathetic efforts at the keyboard.
But I digress. I used to work at a weekly newspaper with a woman who was British (she was married to our advertising salesman, who had met her while he was serving overseas, and covered the county commission meetings for us). She told us that in England when someone was riding in a cab and upon seeing their destination, wanted to me dropped off, they would tell the driver, “Knock me up to the curb.” Of course, coming from a woman that would sound rather risque to our American ears, but across the pond the meaning of the statement was well understood.
DEREK THE MAN
I’ve said it before and still believe it, Derek has the hardest job in that organization and does extremely well at it.