Peeling

Over on my other blog I posted a little nothing piece about an article in The Onion, Hillary Clinton Launches Intimidating New Fragrance Line. What I didn't bother pointing out there, but will here because that's the sort of thing I do here, is that, uncharacteristically for The Onion, the piece isn't really very well written.

Where to begin? "Eaux de toilette" is plural, but there's only one scent under discussion. "Designed to evoke the olfactory equivalent" doesn't make sense, because a scent doesn't evoke the equivalent of something, it is the olfactory equivalent of something, or it evokes something: one or the other, but not both. "This is a controlled, competent, and, above all, patient essence that makes men sit up, take notice, and not speak until spoken to" is wrong, too, because "controlled" and "patient" don't fit with the kind of woman who makes a man "not speak until spoken to": "controlling" and "no-nonsense" are probably closer to the point.

Could have used another editor.

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Speaking of The Onion, reader Joel noted this completely unnecessary error:

Just today on the AVClub (www.avclub.com) "...this Battlestar Galactica prequel finds humanity sewing the seeds of its destruction." Sewing the seeds to what? With what kind of needle?

When I read this, I thought, "Oh, they didn't!"

They did, though.