Cool Re-appropriation Of Common Practices

I love reading about how various cultures (e.g., local, youth, etc.) re-appropriate common practices and transform them into something that is essentially different. In this Reuters article about cell phone usage in Africa, missed calls are being transformed into something useful:

You beep someone when you call them up on their mobile phone — setting its display screen briefly flashing — then hang up half a second later, before they have had a chance to answer. Your friend — you hope — sees your name and number on their list of ‘Missed Calls’ and calls you back at his or her expense.

It is a tactic born out of ingenuity and necessity, say analysts who have tracked an explosion in miskin calls by cash-strapped cellphone users from Cape Town to Cairo.

As an FYI, this missed call phenomenon also happens in the UK, at least in the context of (pirate) radios and DJ sessions where calling and hanging up represents a request to reload (start the song over). I forget what they call it.

The Long War On Terr(ible Writing): Know Your Syllables

The DCist, a miserable but extremely popular DC-focused blog, used this headline the other week to report about the coming WVU vs University of Maryland football game:

Terps Host ‘Neers in College Park Showdown

Besides the general pointlessness and poor writing of the post, I wonder why they used “‘Neers” to refer to WVU. First, the relevant nickname here is “‘eers”. Granted, I have fairly deep connections to the place, but most sports fans–of which we would, presumably, count the writer–would know that. Second, what type of nickname would start at the end of a syllable and cross over to the next? None, that’s what. Nicknames are nicknames because they are short and roll off the tongue. Screwing up syllables doesn’t do this. Notice how “‘eers” is one full syllable. So a basic copy editor, who is, presumably, familiar with basic word structure, should have caught this one.

I can’t believe the terrible writing of this area is driving me to become a nit-picky reader/writer. Do you people see what you are driving me to? (Yes, that last bit was intentional.)