When I was doing the paper review on the BBC last night I was somewhat dismissive of The Observer's rather odd decision to appoint Rio Ferdinand as the guest editor of their Sport Monthly magazine.I almost roared with laughter at the front page advert for his interview with Prime Minister Gordon Brown - you know, the man whose 100% attention is on getting us out of the economic crisis and who doesn't do celebrity. Yep, that one. When Rio was at West Ham, he was a brilliant, talented defender, yet had a bit of a reputation for not being the sharpest knife in the drawer.So when I opened the Sport Monthly magazine and read the first sentence of Rio's editorial my heart sank...
When I was a kid growing up in Peckham, me and my friends (sic) used to sit up till mad hours talking about what's we'd like to do in the future.
Clearly the Sport Monthly doesn't employ a sub editor. However, somewhat to my surprise, the rest of the publication is rather good, and his interview with the PM is excellent. [Read it HERE]. Its the kind of verbatim conversational interview I do in Total Politics, and I have to say that he carries it off well, with just the right mix of conversational banter and intelligent questioning. Gordon Brown clearly knows his football, it has to be said. He even says something nice about West Ham just to prove it (!) ...
GB: You must be enjoying your football now? Sir Alex is great.So I take it back. The Observer knew exactly what they were doing by getting Rio to guest edit. They must have, as they got me to read their magazine for the first time ever!
RF: Yeah, I'm enjoying it now. When I started at West Ham ...
GB: There were some great players there.
RF: Di Canio… Lampard was there. I never wanted to leave and at the start it was really good ... but since I've been at Man United it's been a dream, really.
7 comments:
'Me and my friends (sic).'
Perfectly standard colloquial English. I was a sub-editor for over 20 years and would not have changed it. In such a context, 'my friends and I' sounds stiff and prissy. If someone called out to you, 'Who's there?', I don't think you would give the grammatically correct answer 'I'.
I agree with Tachy.
Anyone else think Rio reminds them of the great Bernard Bresslaw?!
http://shamikdas.blogspot.com/2008/10/high-five_12.html
Fantastic defender, much, much better than John Terry, but always seems to me to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic, if you know what I mean!
Just imagine, Rio in an Ealing Comedy or a Carry On film: he'd fit right in!!
'Talking about about what's we'd like to do in the future' would have been corrected by a sub editor.
This is football.
I feel dirty and abused. You should warn us if you are going to do that.
There is another place for this sort of thing Mr Dale, and as liberal and enlightened as I am, I draw that line at football.
Does Sharia Law ban it? If they do, I shall immediately become a Muzzy.
When I sub edit I try not to get my red pen out for people's grammar.
I agree with Tachybaptus.
And yes, the magazine publisher I work for still insists on galley proofs being printed out and red pens used to banish any literals, typos, over matter, etc. Great fun!
So a complete thicky is now ok because he can talk to Rio Ferdinand about West Ham? Your vote is easily bought. Who's the thicky here?
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