Wiftees News

I love language, all kinds: the English language, body language, symbolic language, other languages. Because languages are all about connecting. Communication, we call it. But it’s really more about connecting. It’s a beautiful thing. And I occasionally enjoy finding bloopers or mistakes in fictional novels or press. Feels sort of like solving a crossword or playing Scrabble. Like, “Hey! I just found a published typo in a Grisham novel that I bet 1 in 1,000 people didn’t spot!” So I spotted one today on an ABC News blog. See if you can catch it (I’ll give the answer at the bottom):

“Democrats are near the finish line on health care legislation but they have yet to overcome one of the biggest hurdles — merging the Senate and House bills together.

Although Congress is officially still in recession, key lawmakers are actively involved in intense negotiations to merge the two different bills that, while similar, have some important differences between them.

Experts say Congress is likely to pass the health care bill, but the political ramifications remain to be seen. “

Did you catch it? Here it is: “Although Congress is officially still in recession….” Wow, what great timing for that little blooper! It’s no biggy, really, but it is kinda funny. Should have said: “Congress is officially still in recess…” Now, technically speaking, America is supposed to be out of the recession, the big kahuna we just experienced, so to speak.

In a way though, I suppose, Congress is still in recession, because the recovery has repeatedly been referred to as the “jobless recovery,” and last week at the annual economists convention in San Francisco a continuing undercurrent seemed to be…”Are we out of the woods?” Even Ben Bernanke seemed concerned as to whether Congress was doing enough to reign in banks.

Regardless, I’m not too worried about Congress missing out on their recess. They get just a wee bit more vacation than 99.99% of the rest of American…even when we are in recession.

Cheers,
The Whiff