Note to sports announcers and sports section headline writers: Please, please stop saying that a player or a team, “can’t get untracked.”
Each time this erroneous term is heard or seen in my household, it unleashes a torrent of abuse from my spouse. Before acquiring the sobriquet of “She Who Must Be Obeyed” she was formerly known — in another life as an editor at a GTA community newspaper — as “The Hammer of Grammar.”
Tuesday morning started off as your ordinary day. Descended the stairs to partake of the usual – orange juice, oat bran with blueberries and toast with strawberry jam – and dined instead on regurgitated headline fricaseed and flambéed, courtesy of the aforementioned queen of syntax.
“Look at this,” screamed The Hammer (not to be confused with former Kansas City Chiefs’ corner back Fred Williamson, goat of Super Bowl I.)
Exhibit A was thrust in my face. A subhead on the front page of the sports section of The Toronto Star stated, “Sabres unable to get untracked as once-potent power plays hits 0 for 18.”
I surmised instantly that Janice was not particularly worried about Lindy Ruff’s dismal record with the man advantage.
This was confirmed instantly when she launched into a familiar lecture on what the headline writer really meant to say. Which was, “Sabres unable to get ON TRACK. If you get untracked, you are off the rails. You can’t go anywhere.”
The popularity of this (mis)take on the language seems to be growing in football and baseball parlance. Interestingly, you almost never hear a Nascar announcer say that a driver can’t get untracked.
Just once, wouldn’t you love to see a car land upside down on its roof in the middle of the infield, and hear an announcer say, “Well, he finally got untracked.”
The untracked/on track issue is gaining traction in our household pantheon of glaring grammatical grievances.
Although it is difficult to determine precisely, it appears to have moved into fourth place on the Hammer’s hit parade.
It still has a long way to go to catch lend/loan (lend is the verb, loan is the noun); “hopefully” (which frankly appears to be a lost cause); and the ongoing mystery of the purpose of the poor, abused apostrophe.
Once she completes her personal campaign to correct the ongoing public abuse of the spoken word, the Hammer plans to take on a much bigger challenge: making the world safe for the semi-colon.
All I have to say about that is this: Hopefully, she’ll loan me her rule book so I can get untracked on the apostropes’ misuse.
Man, I am so dead.
Comments (3)
Untracked and Unrutted
Before trains and the tracks that they run on were invented we had soft muddy dirt roads. As many travellers used the same road over and over ruts would form as a result of all the feet and wheels that passed before.
If you happened to be one of the unfortunate individuals to be at the end of the line of travellers you were said to be ‘in a rut’ which is synonymous with following in someone else’s lead and not in control of your own direction.
When trains were invented the phrase ‘to be on track’ meant you knew where you were going and how you were to get there. To be off track, or untracked as the case may be, means uncertainty. At the beginning of the journey you thought you knew how things were going but now you do not.
In the animal world, most commonly ungulates such as moose and deer come to mind, to ‘be in a rut’ has much different meaning than it does for human beings.
Now all this talk of tracks, ruts and ungulates reminds me of a story that happened one day at Riverwood Park right here in Mississauga. On a fine sunny Saturday afternoon I decided to go on another of my numerous walkabouts this fine and at that time largely deserted natural wonderland.
In order to avoid getting myself into a rut by taking the same route over and over I decided to enter the park where there was no defined path. That day I veered off the sidewalk along Burnhamthorpe Road between the main park gate and Erindale Go Train station. I scrambled up the embankment, climbed onto the low stone wall and jumped down to the other side.
With a soft thump I landed on the oak savannah below; about twenty feet from a wide eyed deer and an eight point buck. It was rutting season. The buck was also wide eyed, wide nostril, snorting, snotting and stomping. He was now also looking at me.
Wow, what a great photo opportunity I thought to myself, for a brief self delusional moment. As I quickly assembled my camera gear the buck more quickly became more agitated.
Fearing now that I may about to get rutted or otherwise bucked of the property by the angry ungulate; I began to back away from the bonking- bucko. I backed onto the previously mention train tracks.
Now I was out of a rut and on track. In the lingo of today, I was unrutted and tracked. Normally this would be a good thing; but not when a stupid train decided to come along at a most inconvenient time.
The dilemma was that I had to get myself deliberately untracked while at the same time not getting rerutted, which is the short form for un-unrutted. The deer and bucking ungulate were still in my way as well.
So I positioned myself behind a mighty oak, picked up a large broken branch the size of a caveman’s club and prayed that the snorting beast would lose interest in any further contemplation of an inter species relationship.
Eventually he did lose interest in me and I had opportunity to back over to the stone wall, climb over it, and scuttle down the embankment and into the path of a speeding delivery van. What a relief that was.
Posted by Stephen Wahl | May 18, 2007 10:27 AM
Posted on May 18, 2007 10:27
I've honestly never heard the term "untracked" before now, and I'm surprised that major news publications have taken to using such an unpossible use of grammar. For shame, Toronto Star!
Posted by crazyrabbits | May 16, 2007 4:19 PM
Posted on May 16, 2007 16:19
How ‘bout if you said instead, “aint able to get un-track’d?”
Does Mrs. Hammer have to undisapprove these comments before you can’t not post them for all to see what kind of nincompoops inhabit the blog-o-sphere?
Posted by Stephen Wahl | May 16, 2007 4:05 PM
Posted on May 16, 2007 16:05