Reporters saying "TARMAC" how stupid!!

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
nk.net...

I've noticed reporters frequently have little knowledge of their subject
regardless what it is.



That's the iron law of modern journalism.

--

Scott

Like the archers of Agincourt, John O'Neill and the 254 Swiftboat Veterans
took down their own haughty Frenchman. - Ann Coulter

"CASK829" wrote in message
...
Why is it that idiot reporters use the term "TARMAC"?


I worked my way through college working at various US airports, refueling
GA, and airlines. I never heard the word "tarmac" until some Brit used it
on TV and then it seemed like every Ted Baxter wannabe in the US picked up
the term to impress other Ted Baxter wannabes.

In the US the word should be "ramp." It seems to me that if the proper
terms are best defined by the people that are most directly related to the
use, then the word in the US should be "ramp."

Everytime I hear some idiot reporter in the US use the term I remember an
episode of the old Dick Van Dike Show. Rob and Laura have some reason to
call the police to investigate some matter at their home and when the police
officer shows up Rob is fumbling and trying to use "police lingo" to impress
the officer. As the cop leaves Rob declares "Mark 7", thinking that's how
cops sign off, not realizing that's just an artifact of the Dragnet TV show.

I fully expect to see some silly CBS reporter describing a lorry crash near
Denver or a shortage of water closets for new homes.



--

Scott

Like the archers of Agincourt, John O'Neill and the 254 Swiftboat Veterans
took down their own haughty Frenchman. - Ann Coulter

"John Harlow" wrote in message
...

Don't get me started on "pre-boarding"....

...or "preflight planning".


My fav... "Please stay in your seat until the aircraft has come to a full
and complete stop."

In the US the word should be "ramp." It seems to me that if the
proper terms are best defined by the people that are most directly
related to the use, then the word in the US should be "ramp."

Considering the slope of most so-called "ramps" is nearly flat, I fail to
see how this is the correct term.

Perhaps it should be called the more logical "plane park".

It reminds me of the term The Simpsons has made popular for a garage: "car
hole".

"tscottme" wrote in message
...
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
nk.net...

I've noticed reporters frequently have little knowledge of their subject
regardless what it is.



That's the iron law of modern journalism.


THough I am ashamed to admit it I was once a reporter for a lo-cal TV
station. Our news director made it very clear one day after a young
reporter-ette used the term "War Zone" to describe the aftermath of a
tornado that if anyone used it again there had better be some pictures of
tanks and soldiers to go along with the story.

Slow fade to latter that very same day. There was one of those little
inserts the networks feed to the locals to insert in the 5 o'clock news
about upcoming stories the network will have that night. A network reporter
was describing the aftermath of some battle somewhere and acctually said,
"...It looks like a war zone here..." The news director who was also the
local anchor could not even begin to stop laughing before he was back on the
air.

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 at 09:59:54 in message
, Bob Gardner
wrote:

It bugs me, too. Most ramps are concrete, not tar-macadam, but the newsies
think that saying tarmac makes them sound knowledgeable.

I would have thought it was English 'oldies' like me who might say it in
all innocence. My dictionary is a bit old (1982) but says:

Tarmac. Trade name (often not cap.) a paving material that consists of
crushed stone rolled and bound with a mixture of tar and bitumen. esp.
as used for a road, airport runway, etc. Full Name Tarmacadam.

The Tarmac group is a construction company in the UK.

A Google search found the following:

"John Loudon McAdam (born 1756) designed roads using broken stones laid
in symmetrical, tight patterns and covered with small stones to create a
hard surface. McAdam discovered that the best stone or gravel for road
surfacing had to be broken or crushed, and then graded to a constant
size of chippings. John Loudon McAdam's design, called "macadam roads,"
provided the greatest advancement in road construction at the time.

The water bound Macadam roads were the forerunners of the bitumen-based
binding that was to become tarmacadam. The word tarmacadam was shortened
to the now familiar tarmac. The first tarmac road to be laid was in
Paris in 1854."

So it has a long history!


--
David CL Francis

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 at 18:32:01 in message
yoWCd.620206$wV.185193@attbi_s54, Jay Honeck
wrote:

And the throttle -- that doesn't.

Actually in its original form it does 'throttle' the air intake to the
engine thus reducing the flow and the power. It does require a bit more
that that though to get the mixture right!
--
David CL Francis

In article yoWCd.620206$wV.185193@attbi_s54,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

And the throttle -- that doesn't.

it doesn't? Mine sure seems to throttle the engine power

--
Bob Noel
looking for a sig the lawyers will like

"David CL Francis" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 at 09:59:54 in message
, Bob Gardner
wrote:

It bugs me, too. Most ramps are concrete, not tar-macadam, but the newsies
think that saying tarmac makes them sound knowledgeable.

I would have thought it was English 'oldies' like me who might say it in
all innocence. My dictionary is a bit old (1982) but says:

Tarmac. Trade name (often not cap.) a paving material that consists of
crushed stone rolled and bound with a mixture of tar and bitumen. esp. as
used for a road, airport runway, etc. Full Name Tarmacadam.

The Tarmac group is a construction company in the UK.


Tarmac is used in the UK as a generic term for any form of asphalt surface
as in a tarmac drive, or a tarmac pavement (sidewalk in your language). Most
or our roads are made of asphalt and in the old days the major company doing
road building was called Tarmac. They had a proprietary brand of road
surfacing material also called Tarmac.

The way it has developed is similar to the way hoover has become synonymous
for vacuum cleaner. Again in the UK, people refer to any vacuum cleaner as a
hoover not just those made by Hoover.

There are many other examples where a trade name or proprietary product has
become to be used generically. The most recent being Viagra which is
attributed to all products of the same formulation, not just the product
from Pfizer.


By the way the company called Tarmac changed its name to Carilion about 10
years ago in a shift away from its association with the black top trade
although it is principally still a civil engineering group

Chris

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.

19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is
it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?

One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?

One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends
but not one amend. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of
all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why
didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Why do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck
and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How
can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a
wise guy are opposites? Drive on a parkway, and park in a driveway?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your
house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by
filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.