Story Archive

Word Up

The Language Columnist for the Baltimore Sun noted that his newspaper had referred to a 68-year-old woman in a report as “elderly.” He admitted that “We should have known better than that,” since the Associated Press Stylebook dictates reporters should not “refer to a person as elderly unless it is clearly relevant to the story.” But on the other hand, columnist John McIntyre notes, “If you are old enough to collect full Social Security benefits and Medicare, you are no longer young. For that matter, you are no longer middle-aged. And spare me that codswallop about sixty being the new forty. I have been forty and I have been sixty, and I can tell the one from the other.” Still, he advised his colleagues to “steer clear of using ‘elderly’” since “You know how cranky old people get.” (RC/Baltimore Sun) ...How do you know the Ballmer Sun has a lot of elderly readers? Because they still have a Language Columnist.