# How did this get past the copy editor? NYT **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 14, 2012, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675 "2012-10-14T08:02:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Naive\_Evian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Naive\_Evian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naive_Evian)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/1 "2012-10-14T08:02:50Z")
"When Girardi and the trainer Steve Donohue came out to attend to him, it was already clear Jeter had sustained a serious injury. Girardi told Jeter that he would carry him off, but Jeter said, “Do not carry me off the field,” so he put an arm around each man and limped off without putting any weight on it. As he was carried off, the fans chanted “Derek Jeter” in their familiar tone, saluting the 38-year-old Yankee icon who has played in 158 playoff games over 16 seasons." Do you see? > **[For Yankees, Thrilling Rally Ends Badly (Published 2012)](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/sports/baseball/for-yankees-thrilling-rally-ends-badly.html?hp&_r=0)** > > The Yankees lost the first game of the American League Championship Series to the Tigers, but they also lost Derek Jeter for the remainder of the postseason with a broken ankle. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/2 "2012-10-14T08:29:55Z")
No. What? ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/3 "2012-10-14T09:36:29Z")
I see two problems: [spoiler]1) The antecedent of the word “it” at the end of the first paragraph is unclear. Was he trying not to put weight on his arm? 1. The first paragraph details how he refuses to be carried off the field, yet the second starts with “As he was carried off…”[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/4 "2012-10-14T09:44:34Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > I see two problems: > > [spoiler]1) The antecedent of the word “it” at the end of the first paragraph is unclear. Was he trying not to put weight on his arm? > > 1. The first paragraph details how he refuses to be carried off the field, yet the second starts with “As he was carried off…”[/spoiler] Not sure why you felt the need to use a spoiler box, but OK… [spoiler] The first point is not a problem, since the fact that his ankle is the “it” in question is fairly clear from reading the article. I agree that the second point you make may be what the OP is looking for. [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/5 "2012-10-14T09:48:04Z")
Maybe, but “limped off without putting any weight on it” clearly means without putting weight on the limb which he is favoring. And the start of the second para may be because, although Jeter thinks he wasn’t being carried off, the writer thinks he was. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/6 "2012-10-14T10:12:31Z")
My money’s on “Made-up grammatical ‘rule’ which will make no sense to anyone else, be completely divorced from both logic and the practice of writers everyone agrees use language effectively, and will be broken multiple times by the OP in the course of this thread.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/7 "2012-10-14T11:33:01Z")
The problem is that there’s no mention that the Yankees suck, and all real Americans hate the Yankees. But it’s no surprise from ‘All the News that Fits in Print’. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/8 "2012-10-14T12:13:53Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The problem is that there’s no mention that the Yankees suck, and all real Americans hate the Yankees. But it’s no surprise from ‘All the News that Fits in Print’. It goes without saying that the Yankees suck. And that the Sawx suck even more. ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/9 "2012-10-14T12:45:16Z")
Yeah, there is nothing catching my eye here either. Is it one of the stats? Let’s see… He IS 38. He seems to have played in only 157 playoff games? This fact is sketchy. 2012 marks his 17th season. Did I find it? I used google for each, and on each the first link was to the NYT. The rest was mostly wikianswers robot-style stuff, I don’t know if there’s a correlation. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/10 "2012-10-14T12:45:17Z")
My problem is with the pronunciation of the French name Jeter: to throw. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/11 "2012-10-14T12:48:57Z")
Yeah, “carried off” is wrong. I would have changed it to “helped off the field”. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/12 "2012-10-14T13:33:32Z")
I agree with Derleth (made up “grammatical rule”). It will almost surely turn out to be the “it”, but I see no real problem with it, since its referent is clear. Chomsky & Co. killed an untold number of trees arguing about pronoun reference and finally gave it up as a bad quest. It appears to be purely pragmatic. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/13 "2012-10-14T13:45:10Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Yeah, “carried off” is wrong. I would have changed it to “helped off the field”. He was sort of carried off the field in the end, whether he wanted it or not. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/14 "2012-10-14T14:49:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Girardi told Jeter that he would carry him off, but Jeter said, “Do not carry me off the field,” so **he** put an arm around each man and limped off without putting any weight on it. Also, “he” should be referring back to Girardi according to this construction, not Jeter. ---
**Author:** ![Naive\_Evian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Naive\_Evian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naive_Evian)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/15 "2012-10-14T18:09:39Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > I see two problems: > > [spoiler]1) The antecedent of the word “it” at the end of the first paragraph is unclear. Was he trying not to put weight on his arm? > > 1. The first paragraph details how he refuses to be carried off the field, yet the second starts with “As he was carried off…”[/spoiler] #2 ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/16 "2012-10-14T18:17:11Z")
Refusal has nothing to do with an eventual action. You could refuse to breathe. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/17 "2012-10-14T18:33:47Z")
If he was able to walk one legged by putting his arm around two men, then they carried him off. If he had hopped a couple hundred feet from the outfield to the dugout, I’d say he he made it under his own power but that didn’t happen. Yankee fans can continue to believe in his superhero status if they wish. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/18 "2012-10-14T18:38:37Z")
I can sorta, kinda see the OP’s point if I squint _just_ right… There **is** a difference between being carted off on a stretcher and hobbling off even with a lot of assistance. I can see why it would matter to Jeter, and why the OP took umbrage to the phrase “As he was carried off.” But… yeah, there was no way he was getting off the field on his own. Wishes and image aside, he was pretty much carried off. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/19 "2012-10-14T19:17:13Z")
It is not whether or not it meets the criteria of “carried off.” It is the awkward phrasing. It goes from refusing to be carried off, to limping off to carried off. It sounds awkward without a “despite his wishes to leave under his own power…” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675/20 "2012-10-14T19:40:33Z")
You’re setting the bar too high. Recently I’ve heard professional journalists–on NPR yet–say things like “have ate” and “have ran”. And you’re expecting carefully crafted sentences? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-this-get-past-the-copy-editor-nyt/637675.md?page=2)