A brief word
As if further proof were needed that Hollywood is, in fact, not run by Jews, Mel Gibson has a new film out called Apocalypto.
For the past week, television ads have been running in continuous rotation. The plot of the movie is teasingly summarised and the most exciting segments are shown to titillate the senses. These advertisements finish with an announcement that the film can be seen in cinemas from “jan five”.
That’s exactly what’s said: jan five. Not “January fifth”, or “the fifth of January”, or even “January five”. Nope: jan five.
I guess it’s fortune that Mel’s movie is being released in such an easy-to-pronounce month. I’d hate to hear the announcer have to wrap his mouth ‘round dates like “sep one” or “apr three”.
What is the point of this? Is any time really being saved by pronouncing abbreviations as if they were complete words?
Of course, this is nothing new to sports fan. Not a week goes by without an advertisement for a match like “Arsenal vee Chelsea.” At first I wondered what the hell “vee” meant. Then I realised that it was supposed to be shorthand for “versus”.
Considering that this is the country where English was invented, they do a remarkable job of butchering the language sometimes.