Forum Moderators: not2easy
The plane came through a hazy, cloudy sky and slammed into apartments that were 30 and 31 flights above the street, but the floors are numbered at 40 and 41, and go up to 50, even though the building is technically about 40 stories high.
- NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press "Writer"
There is hope, you can't do worse than this
What's so bad about it? The writer simply reported the facts.
But it makes sense for the reporter to include an explanation. Otherwise, should it be written that the plane crashed into the 30th and 31st floors, or the 40th and 41st floors? If you had a family member or friend who worked on the 30th floor, it would help you decide whether or not to panic.
I understand the thought behind explaining the whole floor thing, but ramble much?
[edited by: Miss_Willie at 3:23 pm (utc) on Oct. 13, 2006]
--We're getting so used to sentences that begin with "but," that I can see how it could be mistaken for a run-on sentence.
The most common case would be parking levels, though I think that in this case their are retail levels that are seperately-numbered.
The plane came through a hazy, cloudy sky and slammed into apartments on the 30'th and 31'st residential floors, which sit atop 10 stories of seperately-numbered retail space at the base of the 50-story building.
Now you have a word picture of exactly how the building is layed-out, how tall it is, where the plane crashed with respect to the top of the building, etc.
The use of "flight" was particularly poor. "Flight" refers specifically to stairs, and is ambiguous. It can refer to either the stairs between one floor and the next, or the steps between one LANDING and the next. So, depending on your definition, there can be 1, 2, or more flights of stairs between two floors.
On observation: this kind of numbering is itself a safety hazard. Imagine the confusion of the emergency responders!
I've seen pizza delivery people walking around my own building confused. We have 10 apartments per floor. The first floor has apartments 1-10. Second floor has 11-20. The floors are numbers 1,2,3,4. They were once numbered 1-10, 11-20, etc. When the elevator was remodeled, they couldn't find buttons that said "1-10", etc.
Idiots who designed it didn't think to number the apartments 101-110, 201-210, etc. Changing it now would cause a giant snafu with the post office.
Hope we don't have a fire.
I was just cleaning out the closet in my spare bedroom, and came across a sign that I had forgotten that I had. I got it at the San Diego City Store. They sell reproductions of street signs, etc.
They've since re-worded this confusing sign that used to grace southbound Interstate 5:
Cruise Ships
Use
Airport Exit
