6/23/2005

1 Comment

1. OK, I read the link. I’ve heard about severe cruelty to animals before, but certainly you always hope it never happens in your hometown.
   Here’s the main thing that popped into my mind, as I, a newspaper man, read the report on that TV station’s Web site:
   When did it become socially acceptable by any objective news media outlet to refer to opossums simply as “possums”?
   Back in the day when I was in elementary school, in the late ’70s, they were called “opossums” when we were studying the animal kingdom. And, when I tried to look up the terms in my Associated Press print stylebook today, I saw a listing for “opossum” but not for “possum.” At no point did it say the term “possum” was acceptable in singular context; the book did reference the phrase “playing possum” with the listing for “opossum.”
   I don’t know, maybe newspapers are a different egg.
   But when I hear someone reference the word “possum” - a word I have never spoken in my life - I usually think of the South.
   And, as someone in MN, when I think of the South, I don’t normally think of Des Moines or any of its TV network affiliates.
   But it just started me to wondering:
   How far south do you have to be to have and use the term “possum” in your regular vocabulary? How skilled do you have to be on the banjo?
   Just curious …

   Comment by Paul — 6/24/2005 @ 7:54 pm

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