When Will They Learn

As I drive around I listen to the radio a lot and hear the silliest speaking errors.
One that drives me up the wall is the pronunciation of the letter "W". Its not "doub you" or "doubo you" dummies. Its "double you". It is the only letter in the alphabet that has three (3) syllables. It should be easy to spot and pronounce correctly especially if the talker works for the University of Wisconsin system and does air work on WPR. And its worse yet if he/she has been anointed to record a series of station ID's most of which use the letter "W".

So many radio talkers also have the "myself" syndrome. Somewhere they got the idea that the word is a subjective or objective pronoun. Wrong! Using it as such is a serious grammatical error. Use "myself" only for intensive or reflective purposes. It cannot stand alone!

I continue to here talkers use the word "incidence" and "incidences" when they should be using "incident" or incidents". Hey, they are two entirely different words and anyone who is allowed to talk on the radio should know the difference.

Incident refers to

1. A definite and separate occurrence; an event.
2. A usually minor event or condition that is subordinate to another.
3. Something contingent on or related to something else.
4. An occurrence or event that interrupts normal procedure or precipitates a crisis: an international incident.

Incidence refers

1. The act or an instance of happening; occurrence: did not expect criticism and was surprised by its incidence.
2. Extent or frequency of occurrence: a high incidence of malaria in the tropics.
3. Physics.
   1. The arrival of radiation or a projectile at a surface.
   2. Angle of incidence.

What is the incidence of the incident. The incident happened three times. The incidents incidence was three! Got it now?

I'm at the point where I can't stand it anymore and tune to another station when some of these talkers air their talking problems. I'm ready to go to satellite radio where perhaps the quality of the presenters is better.