# Attention authors, writers, and journalists: **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2014, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740 "2014-02-07T08:02:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/1 "2014-02-07T08:02:20Z")
“ **Grizzly** ” is reserved for the bear, and geographical places named after the bear. Also Grizzly Adams. If it’s gory, gruesome, or gnarly – the word you’re looking for is “ **grisly**.” That is all. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/2 "2014-02-07T13:45:54Z")
Fo’ shizzle, ma grizzle. Have you come across many egregious misuses of this word in recent times - enough to inspire you to create this PSA? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/3 "2014-02-07T14:43:37Z")
There are several words like this I see commonly misused. Trying to think of the others, but yes, I can only chuckle when some junior reporter writes about a grizzly murder scene. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/4 "2014-02-07T14:46:20Z")
As long as I don’t have to refer to it as a Grizzlysup[/sup] brand Ursine Animal. Things can still be grizzled, though, right? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/5 "2014-02-07T16:24:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Things can still be grizzled, though, right? Depends on how you use it. I’ve seen it used instead of “gristled”, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/6 "2014-02-07T19:22:17Z")
My uncle shot a grizzly bear once, so one night we had grizzly steaks for supper. Mine was cooked rare as blood, the way I like it, but had some gristle in it. Best damn grisly, gristley grizzly steak I ever ate. True story. (said Pinnochio) ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/7 "2014-02-07T20:15:09Z")
I was reviewing a presentation today that said that someone “couldn’t conger up a smile.” I was wondering what eels had to do with it, until I realized that they meant “conjure”. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/8 "2014-02-07T20:28:01Z")
In other news, people do not “pour” over a document unless maybe they’ve been melted first, and “breaks” are not the things that stop a car. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/9 "2014-02-07T20:39:10Z")
Baseball is not America’s past time. (Not yet, anyway.) ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/10 "2014-02-07T21:24:27Z")
I’ve never been taken for granite, nor put on a pedal stool. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/11 "2014-02-08T00:24:29Z")
Just as bad as wearing a straight-jacket or having a nice, taught abdomen. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/12 "2014-02-08T00:44:11Z")
Slightly off topic, but since we’re here: He did not give it to Sue and I. It is not from John and I. This is not between you and I. The distinction between subject and object is one of the most basic elements of the English language (and every other language I know). If you’re an author, a writer or a journalist, and you can’t tell the difference between subject and object, you need to get a different job. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/13 "2014-02-08T03:39:51Z")
When you have a grizzly gristly grisly wound with blood flowing all around, a tourniquet _staunch_es it not. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/14 "2014-02-08T04:49:14Z")
**Dervorin:** Word; and god yes! \*\*CalMeacham: \*\* Snerk, and yes. **Czarcasm:** Me too. Hmmm, there’s a cult band called Throbbing Gristle… "Throbbing Grizzle " … awk, my brain hurts. \*\*SpoilerVirgin: \*\* Ha ha hahahaaa! Perhaps it had something to do with differring social morays? **El\_Kabong:** Yup! And why does no one seem to get the difference between “reign” and “rein?” I blame spell-checking. Used to be you’d have a human proofreader who’d catch these things. Now, if you happen to use the wrong homonym or a creative combination of other legitimate words (that is still wrong), you will sail through with it. Oh, and when talking about raindrops peeling off the windows of a spaceship flying in the atmosphere of a planet, the factor you’re referring to is “wind shear.” “Sheer” is the drop from the spaceship to the ground. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/15 "2014-02-08T05:01:19Z")
P.S. It was only after I had seen “grizzly” misused in three separate places that I felt I could not help myself. I mean, come on! ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/16 "2014-02-09T05:38:40Z")
What about grizzly kids? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Dumpster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Desert\_Dumpster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Dumpster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/17 "2014-02-09T06:03:47Z")
Little Prunella met a grisly fate when she encountered a grizzly and was reduced to gristle, said the grizzled old mountain man. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/18 "2014-02-09T09:27:32Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > I blame spell-checking. . . . Now, if you happen to use the wrong homonym or a creative combination of other legitimate words (that is still wrong), you will sail through with it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of the these spelling errors in published materials. Just in personal or internal correspondence, or in students’ drafts. And that’s all that these are: spelling errors. When people do this they’re not intending to write about bears, etc., so to act as if that were the case is somewhat disingenuous, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Enn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dave_enn/32/426_2.png) [@Dave\_Enn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Enn)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/19 "2014-02-09T11:45:25Z")
I see every day; people can’t tell the difference between the indefinite article (an), and the conjunction (and). As in ”I had and awful time yesterday.” Makes me crazy. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740/20 "2014-02-09T12:28:49Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > He did not give it to Sue and I. It is not from John and I. This is not between you and I. Oddly, I only see and hear the last example, “Between you and I”, and even the best commentators might slip up on that one. Weird. > [@brujaja](#): > > \*\*SpoilerVirgin: \*\* Ha ha hahahaaa! Perhaps it had something to do with differring social morays? Thank you. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-authors-writers-and-journalists/680740.md?page=2)