Daily Writing Tips talks about the Chief Justice’s prepositional error while administering the oath of office here. The grammatical implications suggest it was a Freudian slip, which I find rather amusing. Check it out.
Also, Stanley Fish dissects Obama’s prose style in his speech here. It’s already a classic.
As interesting as the slip-up may have been, I feel like the media is making much ado about nothing. It was a human error and while it may have warranted a double-take and a brief report, it’s become a focal point of discussion. Why is this?
Melissa, I do agree: I don’t think it was a subliminal message or anything. But I do find it interesting to look at the grammatical implications of mistakes, and this is a very public one.
Of course, I loved sentence diagramming in seventh grade, so I guess I’m odd to find interest in that kind of thing! I think most people find the “Freudian slip” the most amusing.