Remember, They’re The Pros
I certainly know that I’ve mangled my share of the English language, but by gum I do it on my own dime. Can someone explain to me this sentence from those-who-are-possessed-of-layers-of-fact-checkers?
Game McGimsey, a volcanologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, said the vent, lying 1,000 feet under the surface, issued a cloud 40,000 reaching feet in the air.
Maybe “reaching feet” is a new unit of measurement?
Or maybe the name of a particularly flexible Indian?
It’s a simple typo. They put the numbers before reaching instead of after.
But I do see a lot more typos in professional publications nowadays.
Tortured, yes, but at least it’s still readable. He should have written “into the air.” Then he’d have game.
Also, would you say that the vent “issued” a cloud? I’d think that the cloud would have issued *from* the vent.
Heck, I’m just trying to accept that there’s actually a real person named Game McGimsey.