By Calvin Palmer
A NASCAR TV ad just before the half-time report on last night’s NFL play-off game between the Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers invited viewers to attend the Daytona 500 in February and see cars race at impossible speeds.
If the speeds are “impossible,” how can the cars achieve them?
Was the person who wrote the copy never taught that impossible means that which is not possible?
I guess what they meant to say was “improbable speeds”.
Clearly the copywriter was also never taught the difference between probable and possible and their opposites – improbable and impossible.
Is it any wonder that Americans are tainted with a poor understanding and usage of English, if such obvious errors by people who should know better are allowed to be broadcast on network television?
But then again it was the Jacksonville area Fox Sports channel, so perhaps I am expecting too much.
I appreciate a good grasp of the English language just like every other educated person, but can we please lay off the Southern bashing? It really is not funny and doesn’t add anything to your article.
Whoah there Renee. No Southern bashing going on here, just Jacksonville and Northeast Florida bashing. Check out the school statistics for Duval County and you will see the value that the people in Jacksonville put on public education. Now if you subscribe to the Southern elitism that is so rife in these parts then you should be ashamed of yourself.