It seems that I could get all of my material from 60 Minutes. I pick on them because they should know better. In a show this past summer, Steve Kroft profiled Jon Bon Jovi. He said JBJ "could care less" about fans, or money, or, well, I really don't remember what came next because my brain seized at the very sound and I heard nothing afterward. There was just a shrill ringing in my ears, and a wringing of my hands.
Could care less. Amazing. If you're trying to convey how little you care, you would say "could not care less." Two negatives, zero caring.

I know this because someone nearly as snobby and a lot geekier than Yours Truly cares a whole lot more about Could Not Care Less.

gallimaufry/care_less.html

It's a chart about caring, plotting the location of Could Care Less (near the bottom) and Could Not Care Less (the absolute, −273.15 degrees Celsius, no molecular energy point of zero. South Pole. Gehenna, not Purgatory. The end of all caring).

Now this protractor-head can also plot the location of his caring about the matter on his little chart. He can have the top, the pinnacle, the I-can-see-forever catbird seat. He clearly cares the most. I will happily take a lower position. Because, in this case, I actually could care less. And I do.

Some others who should know better

We spare no one. No man or woman is out of range of the knuckle-wrapping, demerit-flinging Word Snob. Take the president, (please). "Mr. President, Mr. President, will you kindly step out from behind the lectern and stop calling it a podium?"

That's right, the leader of the free world has NO ONE AROUND HIM who will tell him that it's a lectern he stands behind, not a podium. And anyone else, for that matter. Lecterns are for lectures. Podiums are for feet. Lance Armstrong, the 7-time Tour de France winner, often stands on a podium. It's a raised platform, sometimes in a trio for first, second and third place finishers. Michael Phelps, on a podium. Hillary Clinton, behind a lectern.

I can forgive the president his error, but he repeatedly makes this mistake. Is there really no one around him with the brains or the backbone to speak to him privately? What if he had toilet paper on his shoe?

What if there really were no weapons of mass destruction? (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

Dancing on their grave

Speaking of those who should know better, I just saw this deck headline about Michael Jordan in the Wilmington Star-News (yes, they still print a newspaper, but maybe they should reconsider): MJ's early days/forecasted his/rise to stardom.
Please, click here: http://starturl.com/atcen
The newspaper industry has faced a lot of pressure from the internet, and is crumbling these days. That is mostly too bad. But if they can't be bastions of good usage, maybe they deserve to fail.

"Forecast" is past tense as well as present tense. There is no "forecasted." I expect the weather personalities on TV to get this wrong. "I forecasted rain, but look, it's sunny out." They mostly get this right. But in a newspaper, in a headline, on the front page? We learned this kind of stuff in sophomore copy editing class. Seriously. It's fine to make a mistake, inside the paper. But this was about Michael Jordan, for goodness sake, and on the front page. How many editors saw this?

Well, I don't care how many it was, I hope they were all cast into outer darkness. That's "cast," not "casted." And their stylebooks thrown into the abyss behind them.

- Michael Byrd

We like building websites for non-profits, and and we donate half of our fee back to them. So we were especially happy for the opportunity to rebuild the Latimer House website. Home to the Historical Society of the Lower Cape Fear, the Latimer House sponsors tours, houses historical archives, and features a beautiful enclosed garden. Their website, HSLCF.org, includes online ticket purchasing and e-newsletter signup (in addition to a design we really like).

Visit their site at HSLFC.org. More importantly, visit the Latimer House.

Wilmington attorneys Mitch Baker and Troy Slaughter have created a new website for their firm.

The site, bakerandslaughter.com, is flash as well as substance. The design features an animated photo slideshow that presents both attorneys and the approach of the firm. Professional photography makes a world of difference. The site is also a deep and well-organized law library of only original and topical material. As "attorneys to the attorneys," Baker and Slaughter provide current material in a special section of the site geared toward attorneys. Another section addresses the public. A client section is also available, as well as a Hot Topics area that addresses up-to-the-minute developments in ongoing cases.