Jillian, will you accept this roast

Jillian, we love you as the Bachelorette. You're a girl's girl. You're beautiful, but not in a faux Hollywood sort of way. You seem down to earth, yet smart. At least until we encountered this:

On a date with Kiptyn, Jillian tells viewers, "today it's just about me and him."

Maybe she's just a woman who puts herself first, grammar rules be damned.

She and Kyptyn might be well matched.

"Everything feels good with Jillian and I right now. Everything feels good."

Feels good maybe. Sounds good? We think not.

We get a whole bunch more over the next two hours.

At dinner Jillian tells the men: "while you guys go find tequila, me and Jake are going to go for a little trip."

Contestant Jesse to Jillian: "You're so driven, successful already, sense of humor. Those three things is the complete package.
Jesse to the camera: "Me and Jillian, we had a great conversation."

Grammar Goddess isn't sure she can take much more.

Contestant Mike to Jillian: "I just gotta feel like it's me and you right now."

Did the producers tell everyone to eschew grammar rules? Is is actually not "reality," but written as a script by an illiterate writer who doesn't know the other person's name comes before "me?" Are they all morons?

Jillian offers us more: "I fell like after talking to Mike tonight, him and I have a lot more in common."

Him and I?

Forget bachelors and roses and the search for true love. Let's just find people who can identify the right pronoun and put it in the proper place in a sentence!

First Lady of Grammar

First Lady Michelle Obama graduated from top schools, Princeton University and Harvard Law School. We assume one or both offers English classes or grades students in part on writing well. Sometimes that's a sign one speaks well, too.

Michelle Obama's college transcripts weren't available to check for courses taken or grades received, but a television interview with NBC's Brian Williams brought two moments worthy of an Ivy League gasp.

Asked who in her life made her believe she could achieve, Obama said her older brother, Craig Robinson. She told Williams, "he's two years older than me."

Ouch.

Before we can recover from that, Obama, while describing her brother's accomplishments, explained that those made her believe she also could achieve because (wait for it...) "I'm smarter than him."

Is that open to a vote?

Good Grammar not among O's Favorite Things

So apparently you can have about $3 billion but not know when to say I vs. me. The evidence?

Oprah on her show today: "So Tyler (as in Tyler Perry) comes to my house to show Gayle and I his new film."

In a segment later in the show Oprah and friends talk about how life offers "teachable moments."

Any (really brave) teachers we can get in the audience?

Outsmarting Rory

Watching a dvd of The Gilmore Girls. My they are brilliant. Speaking rapid fire and dropping in references to Krav Maga and Nag Hammadi.

You'd think that child prodigy Rory, educated at snotty Chilton preparatory school, accepted at Harvard, Princeton and Yale and studying at Yale by the time of this episode occurs, would know her pronoun placement.

Apparently the episode writers did not, because we get this:

Rory, speaking of paramour Logan: "He's so great. You've seen him. He's so beautiful. And really smart. Smarter than me, I swear."

We believe you, Rory.

Logan, perhaps you would have known to say "she's smarter than I am." (Though trust us, she's not).

Time to say I do

Caught a Seinfeld episode, one of my all-time favorite shows.

Also caught the show's favorite failure George in this grammar flub during a conversation with Elaine:

"No one drives better than me,'' George announces.

Actually, George, I'd say I do.

The grammar losers

And the first bad grammar award goes to ... The Biggest Loser reality show.

They seem like nice people working their asses off to lose weight. They're also people who've lost the ability to speak English correctly

During an endurance challenge involving falling up and down in mud, contestant Helen laments, "It's down to between Kristen and I."

As the contestants watch a coin toss to see which training team they'll land on, contestant Mike implores the coin: "There's enough spots for both my dad and I, please come up blue."

They should be more selfish. Think me, me, me. "It's down to Kristen and me," and "There's enough spots for both my dad and me."

Leave out dad in the last sentence and see how smart it sounds to say "there's enough spots for I."

Got that losers?

Why we're here

This isn't going to be pretty.

We might live in one of the wealthiest, most successful countries in the world. But we can scratch smartest off the list, unless it's on a day when most people have been struck mute.

When America opens its collective maw, I react like I do when my alarm blares first thing in the morning. Make it stop! Make it stop!

So few know when to say me not I, good not fine; lie not lay.

The problem is particularly bad on television and made excruciating by reality TV. Even the hosts -- who are speaking from scripts -- make egregious errors. On the thankfully now-defunct True Beauty on ABC, Host Vanessa Minnillo would intone "one of you will meet Cheryl, Nole and I in the Hall of Beauty." If true beauty includes good grammar, Miss Minnillo has rendered herself cringe-worthy.

So consider this blog a rap sheet. When I hear or read someone mangling the mother tongue, I'm posting it here. Presidents and TV show hosts alike are fair game.

Think you know better? Join me! It's tough living in the land of those who know when to say me.