Over the past few months I have mostly written about the primary, which was exciting and maddening and made everything else seem less interesting.
I will still be writing mostly about politics, especially as we get closer to the general election, but I am going to resist the temptation to write only about it, and so will be introducing a handful of new features of the blog over the next few weeks.
Today I am introducing a feature in which I will spout off with a (non-political) "Gripe of the day."
Today's gripe: People using the expression "in regards to."
As a writer and former college instructor, this grates on me. Over the ten years I taught, I saw this expression used with increasing frequency in the papers my students wrote.
It amazes me how this phrase, which I rarely heard ten years ago, has creeped into common usage. Yesterday I got a recorded message from a bank soliciting my interest in signing up for a credit card and the message was: "This is _____calling in regards to _______."
I even hear politicians use this expression. When the Republicans controlled the Congress, I often heard Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, use the phrase in news interviews. In fact, he would often use it three or four times in a five minute interview. This is particularly humorous in that this statement appears in his biography on his website: "Following graduation from Kansas State University in 1958, Roberts served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years, then worked as a reporter and editor for several Arizona newspapers." With his experience in the news business, shouldn't he know that the correct expression is either "as regards" or "with regard to?"
