Monday, May 28, 2012

Nothing Remains Quite the Same

The "Parrotheads" reading today's post know all about "changes in latitudes" and "changes in attitudes," courtesy of singer Jimmy Buffett. But even they would be hard-pressed to believe that Buffett's 1977 album or its eponymous hit song inspired the USA Today to introduce changes in "statitude."

I am not against using an invented term as a boldfaced lead-in in this breakdown of college football bowl games. It plays off the idea of sports statistics. That's fine. What's not fine, however, is that the word is spelled differently within the section. For the Orange Bowl breakdown on the left, it's statitude; for the Sugar Bowl breakdown on the right, it's stattitude. (In the same vein, I'm not entirely sure why the bottom lead-in switches from "Who'll win and why" to "Who will win and why.") Consistency counts, people. If you're going to create a word, the least you can do is spellulate.

Spellulate v (2012) : to spell a concocted term the same way at all times

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