Here's a beauty from this morning's New York Times, the newspaper that mercilessly pounces whenever President Bush or Dan Quayle commits a malapropism: A profile of John DiIulio Jr. in the national section reports on his "detailing a sheath of articles he published emphasizing churches over prisons." A "sheath" is something you stick a knife in. The word the Times wants is "sheaf."
Bad Example: Today's New York Times lead editorial uses the case of Michael Milken as an argument for further restrictions on the First Amendment rights of Americans to donate to political campaigns. "Campaign finance reform, while not rendering bad presidential judgments obsolete, would help address the root problem involved in this and so many of the Clinton administration's other scandals -- unequal access to the White House. Like those of Michael Milken and others championed by wealthy Democratic contributors, Marc Rich's pardon application was sent directly to the White House and did not go through the usual Justice Department channels." Despite the "unequal access," Milken did not get a pardon. So why impose new restrictions on free speech rights in order to solve a nonexistent problem?
The Times editorial goes on to declare: "The White House is not an alternative judicial venue for fugitives." In fact, it is. That is one of the main uses of the presidential pardon power, a power that is included in the Constitution. President Carter used that power to pardon a sheaf of Vietnam-era draft-dodgers who fled to Canada, and somehow, Smartertimes.com doesn't recall a huge outcry from the Times editorialists against his action. More evidence that what the Times has against Marc Rich is not that he is a fugitive but that he is a member of that most despised class to Times editorial writers, the non-Sulzberger rich.
'Calender Year': A graphic that runs alongside a New York Times metro section article about the mayor's management report refers to the "Calender year." The word the Times wants is spelled "calendar," with an "a." A "calender," according to Webster's Second, is a machine used to press paper or cloth, or a member of an order of wandering dervishes among the Sufis.