Well I never...

Oh my word. I'm working on a company rationale. And happened to look up the word "movement" in the thesaurus. Third entry:

Main Entry:	movement
Part of Speech:	noun
Related Adjectives:	brachiating, catabatic, circumambient, coxinutant, cursorial, dextrosinistral, digitigrade, drawing, erratic, feirie, formicating, gestic, glad, in motion, irpe, irreptitious, laterigrade, left, mercurial, mobile, motile, motive, motory, movable, moving, murgeoning, nomadic, paradromic, pedestrious, pinnigrade, proal, projectile, pronograde, propelled, propelling, propulsive, recoiling, rectigrade, reptant, restless, shanks, sinistrodextral, subsultive, sure, transitional, unquiet, vermigrade, viaggiatory, wandle

Never have I ever seen such a delicious collection of words! It'll take me days to digest all of this...

A case of losing things in translation. (Oh, is that where my car keys went?)

Today I'm tweaking website copy for one of our clients, a Spanish-speaking country. "Tweaking" is too kind a word. Let's try "massive overhaul," "rebuilding," "intense cosmetic surgery"... I think you get the idea. Here are a few of my favorite excerpts, published exactly the way they were translated:

Starting at Castillo de san Felipe located at the encounter with the sea close to Livingston; you will find amazing paradise places of extraordinary beautifulness. Among the hot sun from the tropics, the breeze from the sea, and the Caribbean humidity, this large territory concentrates the essence of this region.

I can't decide which part is my favorite: the paradise places of extraordinary beautifulness; the muddled contrast of the hot sun, the humidity, and the sea breeze; or the territory's furrowed brow as it concentrates the essence of the region... do they bottle it? I'd like a pocket-size "Eau de Region," please.

The route is fulfilled of mangles and jungle.

Ah yes, I hear those mangles are quite fulfilling, although most drivers advise you go around...

Here you can fish with hook or take a bath. It is surrounded by a fragrant pine, which shadow has been built small cabins and places to cook.

Oh dear. Must I choose between fishing with a hook or taking a bath? That is a mighty large pine, to be surrounding a lake.

Occasionally, you can observe there cultural manifestations of local type.

Can't say a word. I just can't!

Hello, I'm Jess, and I'm a copywriter. This is what I do for fun! (I'm a little off my rocker, aren't I?)

Present your argument clearly, arm yourself with cutting wit and of course, bob and weave!

We are debating in the office today. I asked, "How do you spell sike?" The answers were varied, vigorously defended, and came from surprising parties. See if you can follow this (and perhaps interpret?):
Web developer, male: It's psych. (No evidence or reasoning; he held firm that he was just right.)
Office manager, female: It's sike. I speak ebonics, look it up online! (Adamant)
Copywriter, male: It's psych, as in psyched out. Sike is a misspelling, and it should always be psych. (Used dictionary - traditional and urban - to point out original spelling was psych; sike is a deterioration; therefore it's psych.)
Front end developer, female: It's sike, because while it may have originated as psych, if you're using it in a sarcastic manner at the end of a sentence, of course you'll misspell it. (I agree with her reasoning.)
Creative director, male: It's psych. (Listened to mine and FE dev's reasoning.) That makes sense. (He's neutral.)

We're at an impasse here, people! What do you think?

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

Copywriting moment.
The sentence I'm wrestling with ends thus:
"and will maintain the fast, high-quality production standards which it has become known for."


Except that I want it to say:
"and will maintain the fast, high-quality production standards for which it has become known."


But I still feel more comfortable with the first one, because more readers will be able to identify with it.  Do we sacrifice grammar for readability?  I'm going to side with Churchill:
"This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put."




Later the same morning, I found this lovely confusion:
"Charlie Acuff shined in the shadow of his famous cousin Roy by staying in the Knoxville area and becoming its best-loved old-time fiddler."


How old-timey was it?  Well, it was so old-timey we even employed verb constructions to show you!  Shouldn't it be "shone"?  And by the way, how does anyone shine in someone else's shadow?
*Face-palm...