Monday, May 01, 2006

'erstwhile' should not be used by reporters

Grr, I can't sleep. I knew I shouldn't have mixed all three of my favorite caffeinated beverages! Or rather, I shouldn't have drank them in quick succession; if I had actually mixed tea, cappuccino, and diet coke in one glass, it would have been too disgusting for me to drink enough to overdose.

Anyway, I was checking my mail, and I have a Google Alert set up for news about Hyderabad (and for Iowa, Google, Heath Ledger, and Gavin Rossdale), so I get an email every day with a sample of news stories referencing Hyderabad. One of them was this:
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=51504

The funny thing about this article is that they spend the entire article describing some antique wardrobe formally owned by the Nizams (princes, essentially) of Hyderabad, and how stunning the wardrobe is, and how one of the Nizams refused to wear anything twice. But then they end the article with this paragraph: "A handful of visitors, however, claim that the wardrobe is bare. Some say that it contains only a couple of garments."

How the hell is that reporting?! I mean, either the wardrobe is bare, or it isn't. I doubt that the museum adds and removes garments in an attempt to trick the viewing public; based on my experience with museums in India, the regular laborers in the museum probably just spend their days doing a poor job of cleaning stuff while staring at all the tourists.

You should subscribe to news alerts for things about India--the writing is always amusing, and the stories rarely make sense. Now I'm going to try to go to bed again--wish me luck!

2 comments:

Not Applicable said...

yes, a little creepy. don't worry, this guy i saw for a while also enjoyed reading my sister's blog everytime we hung out - that's really creepy. especially since he wasn't a hot priest.

Anonymous said...

So I clicked on your suggested link and read the wardrobe story, but the G ad below the story was for an Iowa Divorce Lawyer. Why would that ad show up on the website of an Indian newspaper?