When the country is run by the worst people in the world, it's almost fun to let yourself get bent out of shape by minor things like misuse of a word in a newspaper column.
That happened today in the syndicated "Asking Eric" advice column, which had a letter that the Star Tribune headlined "When to share family secrets." The first sentence was this:
I have two brothers with storied pasts from 60 years ago.
I read that and expected to hear about the brothers' great accomplishments, so I was surprised to immediately be told that one of them had a child when he was a teen (okay, that's not so bad but is also not usually considered an accomplishment) and the other one had molested a niece for eight years.
Eric, this is not what "storied" means.
This misuse of the word means the letter writer, columnist, and at least one copy editor at the Star Tribune all do not know that "storied" means something much more like "legendary" or "distinguished."
It does not mean "infamous."
Harumph.
Yes, I feel a tiny bit better. I await your fulsome praise (not).
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