What I'm pretty sure Time is talking about is "the only-child myth." A myth about only children, not the only myth about children.
(If anyone cites "the '-ly' rule" as an excuse for this ridiculous refusal to hyphenate, I'm going to, in the words of a certain Holly Hunter character, lose it.)
The best part of this is the post that was deleted. Thanks for the laugh!
ReplyDeleteI'm Team Slot all the way on that one.
ReplyDeleteThe "-ly rule" wouldn't even apply because "only" in this case in an adjective, right? Besides the common-sense argument, of course.
ReplyDeleteYour earlier try at posting this also showed up in my feed reader. Its title was lots funnier.
ReplyDeleteAww, now I want to see the deleted post.
ReplyDeleteAnd in the same vein: "Needle free jab developed" from the July 19 Daily Telegraph (online).
ReplyDeleteSo much easier to keep track of just one myth, isn't it? All those other myths just got confusing.
ReplyDeleteRight, "-ly" is not the adverbial suffix there; "only" is not an adverb meaning "in an 'on' manner." But maybe it should be! I don't know how I beat Federer, but I was really on today. I was playing on-ly!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like, at the top, they got "High-Speed Rail" correct, and that's less likely to be misinterpreted than "The Only Child Myth."
ReplyDeleteI guess that makes this an editing myth-take?
I HEART deleted posts.
ReplyDeleteI actually read it the single-myth way at first glance.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a phrase I saw in the Financial Times years ago: "edible nut trader". I think they would know it needs a hyphen, but either they were using business jargon or they did it on purpose. I vote for the latter.
ReplyDeleteI heartily agree with you -- inserting the hyphen would have obliterated the confusion.
ReplyDeleteTut, tut. One would have thought a heavy-weight magazine like TIME would have avoided such a clanger.
Great blog!
What about the lack of a comma under "High Speed Rail"?
ReplyDelete