I weep for our language, part 7.
Posted on January 19, 2009 · 17 Comments
Courtesy of Kevin at Fan Interference, we have BC basketball coach Al Skinner:
“I tried to pre-warn them . . . We were capable of being this team and capable of being another team.”
As Kevin points out, a warning that isn’t pre- is kind of useless. Reminds me of the old Bill Cosby routine about the “dip” signs in California. I’m thinking this is roughly as embarrassing as BC’s athletic director throwing a tantrum over his football coach interviewing for a better, higher-paying job.
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17 Responses to “I weep for our language, part 7.”
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George Carlin covered the prefix “pre” as well. Skip to the 1:23 mark of this video.
I have to say, I have never found that man funny, even when I agree with what he’s saying.
“Pre-owned” is the one that has always bugged me. It’s used.
I was pre-planning to point out Carlin’s “pre-boarding” bit, but Brian pre-beat me to it.
(Rest In Anger, George)
Keith, how are you enjoying the pre-read books from Swaptree?
I’m glad that someone else thinks that BC’s athletic director was a total moron.
“Pre-warn” is obviously terrible English, but is it so far removed from “forewarned”?
Keith,
Do you know where I can find each players “spray chart,” or whatever so that I can find how often each batter hits to each field?
“Each part of the field” I meant
Joe, I had actually stumbled across your blog the other day. BillJamesOnline has the best source of spray chart data available, but subscription is required. Firstinning has some spray data, and MLB.com has actualy charts showing where batters hit the ball.
Keith, I don’t think it’s that cut and dry with BC’s athletic director. The coach wasn’t planning on honoring his contract. I think his reaction was extreme, but there should be consequences for that.
Keith,
you say pre-owned I say pre-tested
I’m still waiting for someone on the failblog to post a picture of an old car in a river with the tag “PRE-PWN3D.”
This is just one more story about ol’ Skinner. He has quite a cult following at BC as the Skinman, because of ridiculous behavior like this. Glad to see he’s still at it.
Thank you, Jeremy.
I’d say the most embarrassing part is how many people read this and didn’t notice anything wrong with his quote.
Irregardless, he’s a good coach.
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Just to give Coach Skinner the benefit of the doubt, could he merely have decided to use “warn” instead of “prepare” mid-sentence and he ended up with that mishmash?