May 19, 2005

Today, like every day, is Buy Your Copy Editor a Box of Dark Chocolates Day

Apparently wearing red helps you win at sports. Maybe the Boston Red Sox wouldn't have had that long World Series losing streak if they had been name the Boston Red Uniforms. But anyway, I really mention this to highlight the last sentence of the article:

Tiger Woods wears an iconic red shirt on Sundays, the day when most tournaments are won.

Aren't tournaments won every day a tournament is held?

Posted by Francis at 08:02 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Not in sports like golf, where a tournament is a multi-day affair.

Posted by: Debby at May 19, 2005 09:04 AM

Shows what you know about golf. Most professional golf tournaments are four-day affairs -- all the entrants play Thursday and Friday, and then a fair percentage of the players are cut, and the remainder play two more rounds one on Saturday and the final round on Sunday. Ergo, Sunday really is the day when most golf tournaments are won.

Posted by: Eric Berlin at May 19, 2005 09:15 AM

Can it just be Buy Your Editor a Box of Dark Chocolates Day? Can we non-copy editors get a little lovin' too? :)

Posted by: Kath at May 19, 2005 09:31 AM

I know very little about tournament golf, but I think that most tournaments are multi-day affairs, with the scheduled last day on Sunday. Now and then, the final round will end in a tie, and the tournament will be won on the following day (a Monday). Also, I suppose it's possible that weather might delay the final round; I wouldn't know, as I grew up in the desert.
Still and all, that's a pretty bad sentence. If the writer and editor are settling for "there's an interpretation of the sentence that is technically true", well, that's a sad day for copy editing.

Thanks,
-V.

Posted by: Vardibidian at May 19, 2005 09:35 AM

Well, in golf, tournaments last multiple days, and you usually don't get a winner til Sunday.

Posted by: The Dan at May 19, 2005 09:35 AM

I leave up all the duplicate comments (caused by the fact that comments don't appear until I approve them, and all these comments came in while I was commuting) to show just how many people know more than I do about golf. And yet: the sentence is still moronic. It should be "Tiger Woods wears his iconic [I suggest "his" instead of "an", because presumably it is iconic because of association with him, and not because he goes to the Iconic Shirt Store] red shirt on Sundays, the day when most tournaments end."

Posted by: Francis at May 19, 2005 10:30 AM

What "the day most tournaments are won," which is indeed awkward, refers to is not the actual fact that of course if most tournaments end on Sunday they are won on that day (no one would write, for instance, Baseball managers use their closer in the ninth, the inning most games are won"), but that fact that in golf it all comes down to that pressure-packed last day on Sunday.

So many mid-level golfers are leading on Thursday and Friday, but after the cut and especially on Sunday, the killers like Woods make their move on the field. Sunday is also the day of memorable meltdowns by the likes of Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson.

All in all, perhaps a better word would have been "decided."

Posted by: Alex G at May 19, 2005 11:08 AM

Golf tournaments are multi-day affairs that are typically decided on Sundays.

(Yes, the previous comments were already up. I just wanted to look smart about sports for once. Is that so wrong?)

Posted by: Trip at May 19, 2005 01:59 PM

Hey, I don't know if anyone's told you this yet, but most golf tournaments are multi-day affairs. I learned this from reading the comments to this post.

Also, my album "Glass Houses"? It kicks ass.

Posted by: Billy Joel at May 19, 2005 03:00 PM

Sunday is the day on which "Glass Houses" most often kicks ass.

Posted by: Francis at May 19, 2005 03:02 PM

Francis wears a wacky tie on Sundays, the day when most copy editors are given a box of dark chocolates.

Posted by: neilfred at May 19, 2005 03:29 PM

Oddly enough, most football games are also won on Sundays. At least in the NFL.

Thanks,
-V.

Posted by: Vardibidian at May 19, 2005 03:57 PM
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