Whither The Fool?

I have noticed this for some time, but a young woman being interviewed on a local morning news show reminded me just how grating it has become: the use of the word “whether” without the accompanying “or” connecting the various clauses.

For instance, I should properly say “we had to decide whether we would have turkey or ham for Thanksgiving this year.”

But the new parlance, which disregards established rules of grammar and syntax, would have it thus: “we were trying to decide what to have for our Thanksgiving dinner, whether it would be turkey, whether it would be ham…”

A sort of infinite split infinitive, so to speak.

Dreadful.

I’m not sure why spelling, grammar, syntax, and general rules of English usage just don’t matter anymore, even to the supposedly educated. Or perhaps the reality is that education just isn’t what it used to be.

Looks like voters gave her a little “Spanky,” in fact. Who is this loser?

HOUMA, La. (AP) — A white state lawmaker in a runoff election called a black civil-rights veteran who had helped her campaign “Buckwheat,” angering the NAACP, which urged voters to kick her out of office.

Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, a Democrat, acknowledged that she ended a Thursday night conversation with Hazel Boykin by saying, “Talk to you later, Buckwheat.” Dartez had been thanking Boykin for driving voters to the polls.

WAITER (returning to the table for the third time, impatiently): Well, Herr Doktor, have you decided yet?

PROF. WERNER HEISENBERG (studying menu): I’m sorry, I’m just not sure.

CAPTION: “HEISENBERG STANDS ON PRINCIPLE”