Thank you for both of your excellent FM stations, our favorite being 92.7. -- John Carnegie
Craig Stinson wrote: “Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the arts interviews conducted by Gina Gambony. We have a top tier arts community in Wilmington. Gina's interviews help give insight into the effort and creativity that go into bringing high quality arts events to the community.”
John Carnegie, a “native born Scot”, wrote:
Thank you for both of your excellent FM stations, our favorite being 92.7… I don’t know if Nan Graham was tongue and cheek when she mentioned that “The Camels Are Coming” is a Scottish tune. Just so there is no confusion the tune is “The Campbells Are Coming” which is the march on for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Scottish Regiment. Thanks.
John, I can say without hesitation that Nan was being tongue in cheek — she always knows what she’s doing!
Lorraine Westermark wrote:
I loved Gwenyfar [Rohler’s recent] commentary so much that I posted it on FB with this comment: ‘This was the best ever!!!! Just like Mother Goose, really political satire disguised as children stories, Sounds like NC!!’
She adds,
I have known Gwenyfar since she was at the Helen Alice Higgins Montessori School with my son Leif.
Richard from Wilmington wrote:
Reading the news last week, Ken Campbell referred to Brenda Faye McMillian as the "Democrat nominee" for county council in Brunswick County. With some regularity he refers to the "Democrat party"or the "Democrat candidate," though he will sometimes correct himself. While this is common usage, it is certainly not proper.
Richard’s point is well taken. “He is a Democrat” and other uses as a noun are fine. But as an adjective “Democratic” is more common — e.g., Democratic candidate, also Democratic party, primary, nominee, election, etc. Many Democrats believe that Newt Gingrich was responsible for pushing the usage of “Democrat” as an adjective in the 90s because he thought it would make people think of “rat” when they heard it. My limited digging via Google suggests that while Gingrich may have helped revive the term, it had been used by Herbert Hoover and Thomas E. Dewey, and even earlier, sometimes by Democrats themselves. Nevertheless, today it is used most often by conservative Republicans and avoided by Democrats, who refer to the Democratic party.
The best rule here is, non-politically speaking of course, in radio as well as life, to refer to a person or group by the name they prefer. Anything else is rude. Even if the name is Vivian Smith-Smythe-Smith.
And before someone writes me about this: yes, Terry Gross did pronounce the word "corpsman" as “coresman” on her show Wednesday. Her guest didn’t correct her, but he did say “coreman”, which I would argue is the one to use. Though one source I saw offered Terry’s pronunciation as an alternative. You pays your money, you takes your choice.
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