Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Why not Eleven?
Irrelevant thought. With the current Chinese premier visiting Wash, newscasters are talking about him constantly. I'm surprised that nobody has pronounced his surname as Eleven. It's an obvious temptation, especially since Roman numerals are expected in the context of kings and rulers. Many newscasters did succumb to this temptation with Kim Jong Il. Accidentally right, since he was in fact Kim The Second.
The actual pronunciation is problematic enough.
From KING V's website, I mean KING 5's website:
Xi will likely arrive at Paine Field in Everett Tuesday morning and go straight to his hotel in Seattle. Because Xi is a head of state, he will receive Secret Service protection similar to what a U.S. president would receive. That means a police-escorted motorcade resulting in traffic stops and slowdowns that could affect more than just one highway. WSDOT spokesperson Travis Phelps said not to expect your typical commute anytime during Xi's visit. For security reasons, WSDOT does not know the route Xi will take and will have little advance notice of when he'll be on the roadWhen I read that out loud, my internal grammar checker wants something like: "Xi will likely arrive at Paine Field in Everett Tuesday morning and go straight to her hotel in Seattle. Because Xi is a head of state, she will receive Secret Service protection similar to what a U.S. president would receive. That means a police-escorted motorcade resulting in traffic stops and slowdowns that could affect more than just one highway. WSDOT spokesperson Travis Phelps said not to expect your typical commute anytime during her visit. For security reasons, WSDOT does not know the route Xi will take and will have little advance notice of when she'll be on the road." Aside from my stupid grammar stuff, the last sentence is a genuine shocker, excellent evidence of our absolute and total dictatorship. EVEN THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION is not allowed to know which roads will be blocked to accommodate Her The Eleventh. ¶ 6:25 AM
