Hi John. Thanks for the comment. Mr. Overland at the museum had some great stories to tell about the car. Given more time I would have loved to have interview Gurney as well, but it wasn't in the cards. Next time.
t agree the sentence you cite could be clearer. However, it's grammatically and semantically sound. To say that something is first doesn't require that there be a second. Barack Obama is America's first black president, and that language has been used in respected pubs on both sides of the Atlantic. "A feat that has never been equalled" is an appositive phrase modifying "victory," and it correctly qualifies that word. The language survived the scrutiny of two Times auto-desk editors and at least one copy-desk editor. So I'm good with it. That being said, if this was a feature article and I had gone through my customary seven or eight drafts, I probably would have modified that sentence. However, it was an assignment completed on a two-hour deadline, and within those two hours I had to get through the flack to Mr. Overland, interview him, do a bit of extra web research in regard to the events of that day and write the piece. There was no second draft. Just a quick read and edit on my end. But I do appreciate your observation. Just wanted to clarify. I enjoyed the hell out of this assignment, BTW, and got quite an adrenalin boost from the pressure of a near impossible deadline. Paul On Mar 22, 2013, at 1:04 PM, John Francis <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 11:07:52AM -0400, Paul Stenquist wrote: >> >> http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/preserving-a-famous-american-racecar/ > > A fascinating article, with some interesting insights into the condition of > the car. > > I must mention, though, that I reached for my blue pencil when I read this > sentence: > > "It was the first Le Mans victory by a United States-built racecar and engine > with Americans at the wheel, a feat that has never been equaled." > > To me, 'first' implies others follow. I'd reword it more along the lines of > "It is still the only Le Mans victory ...", and lose everything after 'wheel'. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
