11:51:00 AM MST
Feeling Happy
Hearing NPR
Googling for Dollars (sort of)
I spend a lot of my time at work - such as now - looking up contact info and such on Google. Usually it's clients or vendors, but not always...
A week or so ago I took a call from a newspaper reporter, who wanted to know the correct spelling of a place mentioned by one of our agents in connection with a classical music package. The agent wasn't there, so I pulled up Google. The place was Ile Ste-Hélène. The reporter evidently had Google in front of her also, but couldn't make sense of what she saw. In sans serif lettering, it looked like lle Ste Helene. She couldn't figure out what "LLE" stood for.
"It's Ile Ste-Hélène," I told her, and spelled it (without the accents). "It means St. Helen's Island." She thanked me and hung up.
Is it unreasonable of me to feel that a newspaper reporter should have been able to figure this out without consulting a travel agency bookkeeper?
Karen
Written by mavarin . Link to this entry
This entry has 3 comments:
That's what curmudgeonly, yet omniscient, copy editors are for!
Seriously, the reporter's desire and ability to divine the meaning of the vexing "Ile" would likely depend on a couple of things: her interest in the subject matter and her eye for foreign languages. Maybe she wasn't interested in the subject. Maybe she was ignorant of French and couldn't connect "Lle" with "Ile" and "Ile" with "Isle."
Verdict: Unreasonable. But that doesn't make you a bad person.
Comment from eeyorehmg - 3/28/04 4:30 PM
I think the reporter was having a brain glitch, been stressed and busy. Even so, it's hard to see the place name "Ile Ste-Helene" as an unfathomable mystery. --KFB
Comment from mavarin - 3/25/04 11:18 PM
Karen,
You are now a reporter's resource. Possibly she was on deadline and couldn't focus on the data, or she wanted to be sure.
Comment from pagadan - 3/25/04 5:28 PM
Thursday, March 25, 2004
9:18:00 PM MST
Feeling Happy
Hearing Walk Through the Fire - from Once More, With Feeling
Late night at the office
Okay, I admit it. I'm posting this now just so I can truthfully say I'm listening to a Buffy CD instead of no music at all.
I'm just at the office for a bit because my class let out early. Schoolwork has cut into my office time, so I've been making up for a little of it. That's the end of Intermediate Accounting, and not a moment too soon. I can do this...I can do this...!
Time to go home.
Karen
Written by mavarin.
9:18:00 PM MST
Feeling Happy
Hearing Walk Through the Fire - from Once More, With Feeling
Late night at the office
I'm just at the office for a bit because my class let out early. Schoolwork has cut into my office time, so I've been making up for a little of it. That's the end of Intermediate Accounting, and not a moment too soon. I can do this...I can do this...!
Time to go home.
Karen
Written by mavarin.
The next three entries from Musings can be found on Messages from Mâvarin, and therefore won't be reprinted here:
Otherworld Journal Entry #1 - Crel Merden
Otherworld Journal Entry #2: Fayubi the Seer
Otherworld Journal Entry #3 - Crel
No comments:
Post a Comment