OK, this has been bugging me for years. I have noticed a strange usage in the New Yorker time after time, but I have never been able to stay organized enough to keep track of which page of which issue it occurs on at any one time and so it slips by me until I notice it again in another issue and get all worked up again. Now, thanks to newyorker.com and google, I can finally search for things across multiple articles and issues.
Below are links to New Yorker articles with examples of this usage that so vexes me (I found them by doing a google search with these terms: "in the event" site:newyorker.com):
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060501fa_fact
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061002fa_fact
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critics/061106crbo_books
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/061120crbo_books
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061204fa_fact?page=2
In any of the articles, use the find/search feature of your browser to look for the phrase "in the event." Observe how the phrase is used in each case. You may need to read a few sentences for context.
I usually think of that phrase as being used in a manner like, "in the event of a severe storm, check with local authorities for road conditions." Or, "in the event that you become separated from your party, please use the white courtesy phone." It's a phrase that is pretty much always followed by "of" or "that" in any examples I can think of.
So what is this phrase supposed to mean in this context? Is this alternative usage something relatively new, or is it a normal usage that I just don't understand? Why have I never seen it anywhere else other than the New Yorker? It seems like it sort of means something like the phrase, "in any event," sometimes. Or does it?
I'll leave comments turned on until the comment-spammers get here....
Update: And forgive me if your comment doesn't show up right away; I have some setting turned on where I have to approve them first, which means I have to log in and actually notice they are pending....
Posted by Charles on December 4, 2006 06:14 PMCharles,
How much extra time have you got on your hands?
If you want to see language melt down into a mush of cliches, I guess the New Yorker is as good a place as any to start. (can you spot the lazywriter cliches in the former sentence?) I'm just not sure why you would focus your considerable mental acuity on this slight observation. As the kid's like to say, "let it go, dude!" (Should there be a comma in there?)
Get back to work!
love, jimp
Posted by: JIm Meyering on December 5, 2006 12:51 PMI have noticed the same. Disconcerting as I have always looked up to the New Yorker as a paragon of usage and grammar.
Another grating item to me is the spelling of 'vender' for what I have always thought of as 'vendor'.
Posted by: CJ on December 18, 2006 06:55 PM