I’ve often thought all kinds of people should be asked to take the same oath doctors do – First, do no harm. Parents, spouses, friends, teachers. Book coaches and editors. We all need to be reminded.
One of the challenges of being a book coach or an editor is overcorrecting. Writers tend to be a sensitive bunch. So I try to check – even when I’m sure I’m right. It’s so easy to get it wrong. Usually, I see phrases people have heard but haven’t seen written. Like – All of the sudden. Escape goat. To all intensive purposes. Hunger pains. I get it. Sometimes these expressions have become so common they’re accepted. So whenever I highlight one of these phrases, I always add – Please check. But there’s one expression I’ve been sure about, maybe a little smug about – until today. "I could feel the pit growing in my stomach." This has come up often enough that I have a standard comment. Using a light touch, I’ve explained that pits don’t grow in stomachs. The expression is figurative. Like – from the bottom of my heart. Off the top of my head. In the pit of my stomach. But today, in the New York Times, of all places, I saw – “I felt a pit in my belly.” Wait. What? Had stomach/belly pits sneaked into common usage, and I was unaware? Did I need to write to every author I’d worked with and apologize for leading them astray? Before I made another mistake - I looked it up. And there from Professor Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, he explains: pit in my stomach “Just as you can love someone from the bottom of your heart, you can also experience a sensation of dread in the pit (bottom) of your stomach. I don’t know whether people who mangle this common expression into ‘pit in my stomach’ envision an ulcer, an irritating peach pit they’ve swallowed or are thinking of the pyloric sphincter; but they’ve got it wrong.” A little heavier on biology than I usually go. But reassuring. So. In case you saw it in today's paper, too - by in large, this should give you great piece of mind.
1 Comment
3/1/2025 09:14:13 am
The patient cannot decide on his own what surgery to do for obesity surgery. Surgery cannot be performed on everyone. Sleeve gastrectomy (tube stomach) is an operation that is widely used all over the world in obesity surgery. It is preferred because its physiological and functional results are better. But the patient’s age, body mass index, concomitant diseases, eating habits play a big role in deciding the technique to be performed. After all the consultations are completed, the surgeon and the patient decide together which operation to perform.
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