Ah, Dear Gentle Reader(s), what is one to do?
This from the 10/17/10 print edition of The Desert Sun, p.A6:
Investigators in New Mexico say a Chaparral man who was cleaning his handgun Saturday morning accidentally shot his four-year-old son the the bullet passed through the boy and hit the man’s mother.
Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Department investigator Bo Nevarez says both are in critical condition but their wounds aren’t believed to be life-threatening.
The problem is: the condition is critical but not life-threatening.
One must ask, then, just how does one describe a condition which is life-threatening? Or, just how does a serious condition differ from a critical condition?
Back to work, English teacher colleagues (and, most importantly, editors). Words should have meaning.
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