Thoughts and Gripes

Two of them on this day: 1 – political yard signs. 2 – “after”.

Political yard signs — Driving around the countryside around where I live,  I am appalled at the “Trump/Pence” yard signs that have sprung up.  Far more of these signs than ones for “Clinton/Kaine.”  My first thought was, “What kind of people put a Trump sign in their yard?” Well, Trump supporters, of course; but I mean more like “How can this ordinary looking house have racist, misogynistic residents?”  But then, what does the house of such people look like?  Later, I think I figured out that the signs weren’t all in yards so much as right beside the road.  So the homeowners may not have placed them; maybe it was Trump campaigners.  In any event, the presence and number of these signs frightens me.  Leads me to regard them as a form of terrorism because they suggest more support for Trump than may really be out there.  Of course they are rhetorical! As the accidental audience for the message, I find them appalling.  More appalling is the thought that ordinary people in what is usually considered a blue state say they want Trump for president.  I’d be scared at a Trump rally — scared of the ideas, scared of the people cheering those ideas, scared of being tabbed an outsider and screamed at or assaulted.  I would never go to a Trump rally, but the multitude of signs scares me all the same.

“After” — Dear writers of newspaper headlines and TV news crawls: Do not use “after” when “in” or “when” is more accurate.  No, one person was not killed and hundreds injured after a train crashed into the station in Hoboken. One person was killed and hundreds injured when a train crashed.  Or in a train crash, if it’s the nominal form you want. After in such usage suggests sequence: first the train crashed, then one person was killed and hundreds injured.  That’s absurd!