What Say The Post-Vroomers?

Driving home from dinner out today, wife & kid in the car, I got to thinking about kids and toy cars.

Back in the day it was, as I imagine it still is, inevitable that a kid playing with a toy car would make "vroom! vroom!" noises, or something to that effect, while pushing it around through maneuvers that would make any Hollywood stunt driver cringe. I'm pretty sure my kid will do the same.

But what about the kids of the next generation, or, more accurately, the kids of the first generation to know only electric cars or whatever ultimately replaces cars powered by internal combustion? Will "vroom! vroom!" continue to be passed on from generation to generation like the many nursery rhymes that still get recited after outlasting all cultural context? Or like the "tick-tock" of clocks of yesteryear? Or will the youths of that future generation coin their own onomatopoeia?

Ambiguous Headline

Consider the headline for this AP story:

Technology Aids Collapse Investigation

Reading the story it's obvious that "Aids" is the verb. Out of context, however, "Collapse" could be parsed as the verb, with "Technology Aids" being the subject phrase. The latter is how I parsed it at first glance, though in my defense it was first thing in the morning and I was a little sleepy.

So what would be better?

"Technology Aids In Collapse Investigation" - Definitely better, but some folks familiar with the word "aides" but not its spelling might think it meant some aides were involved in investigating the collapse. It's plausable since some government aide specializing in technology might very well be sent to do some fact-finding on the technical failures involved and offer input on what to look for in designs for the bridge's replacement. At least that's what one might imagine is happening if one parsed the headline that way.

"Collapse Investigation Aided By Technology" - Now we're talking. Sure, it's passive voice, but if that's clearer than what you can do in active voice doesn't that serve the purpose - informing your readers - better? I'm thinking, however, that if the editors at the AP were presented with this as a possible headline they most likely rejected it because of the extra characters for "By". Back in the old teletype days that sort of savings could add up. In this day and age, though, it's kind of an archaic practice.

Anyway, that caught my eye this morning. I hope we all learned something.

What's Your American Accent?

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Midland ("Midland" is not necessarily the same thing as "Midwest") The default, lowest-common-denominator American accent that newscasters try to imitate. Since it's a neutral accent, just because you have a Midland accent doesn't mean you're from the Midland.

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Interesting, since I was born and raised in New Orleans. I did watch a lot of Sesame Street and the like growing up, though.