How many straphangers in this sentence from the New York Daily News?
A 63-year-old woman was shoved to the ground by a stranger in a Bronx subway station, hurt when another Bronx straphanger shoved her to the ground in yet another unprovoked attack, police said Tuesday.Two, but it’s easy to misread and find three: one person who was shoved and who then, hurt, shoved someone else.
Clearer:
In yet another unprovoked attack, a 63-year-old woman was injured when a stranger shoved her from a subway car to the platform of a Bronx subway station, police said Tuesday.Also: I’ve removed the clichéd straphanger and substituted the more precise platform for ground.
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[This post is no. 127 in a series dedicated to improving stray bits of professional public prose.]
comments: 4
Speaking as a Brit (and I appreciate I'm not the main target audience of this particular news organ) I got totally lost at the word straphanger, a previously utterly unknown coinage! I kind of worked it out by the end from context...
Here’s a nice photo of what NYC subway cars once looked like:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/new-york-city-1940s-subway-car-royalty-free-image/128402657
Nowadays there’s just a metal bar above — you hold on wherever you want, or can.
I think “straphanger” is one of those words that hang on (sorry) in journalese. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone use the word in speech.
Yes, I figured it must be that. We still have that kind of strap on a lot of buses here, but the London Underground switched to continuous bars some time ago: presumably more efficient in tines of heavy traffic
I can imagine. The spacious layout in that old car makes me think of a hotel lobby.
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