Good morning, Netizens...

I found the following item adorning the web site of one of the “other” newspapers online this morning, and it caused me to consider both the implications of the paragraph, as written, and if the paragraph should be rewritten, how else would you convey what happened?

Here is the paragraph, taken from one of Seattle's finest online newspapers:

A mechanical failure was to blame in a crash Wednesday morning that left a

Now, before we wrap our fertile intellects around this question, I'll admit I understood the writer's intention from reading the paragraph. I did not suffer visions of rescue workers lining up for an opportunity to exchange fisticuffs with one another in order to be the first to extricate the poor driver. I also admit that the rescuers probably did everything in their power to quickly and safely remove the driver of the Waste Management Truck from the mangled ruins of his truck.

Here are some questions for consideration:

Should the paragraph be rewritten, something along the line of, “...garbage-truck driver trapped inside his vehicle for an hour as crews sought to extricate him, police said.”?

It's food for thought.

In another universe, I wondered how many readers had an English composition teacher in high school who punished students for poor sentences by smacking them on the back of the head with a oak meter stick? Of course, teachers do not do such things these “enlightened” days. Could it be possible that a lack of fear makes such gaffes possible?

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Well, here we go again! Another visit to the five-thirty in the morning panic zone, brought to us courtesy of The City of Spokane Street Department, the loveliest, sweetest-smelling street department in town. Climbing up Grand Boulevard during this morning's snow storm was truly a test of the theory of gravity, with various vehicles sliding backwards, sideways and in some cases, stopping in the middle of the road. My rider thought perhaps that one poor stranded driver on the approach to Sacred Heart who was sideways on the hill, was merely waiting on a city truck to come along and spray deicer on the slick roadway.

Unfortunately, while on Grand Boulevard, it was nearly 7:00 o'clock before I saw a plow rumble through the intersection of Twenty-ninth and Grand, and by then it seemed all so predictably familiar. So what if the calendar says it is Spring in the air, and the City is struggling to come up with a way to patch our woeful streets? Even in the Spring of the year, when it snows, we need a working solution for steep approaches to the South Hill that can be deployed quickly.

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Dave

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