Televesion (for Television)

When I travel, I enjoy watching the local television news coverage to see how it differs from place to place.  In particular, I like to see what new regional expressions I can pick up on.  For instance, in my adopted state of Arkansas, two things I hear all the time are “wreck” (as in “auto”) and “busted” (for “break”).  Now to me, “wreck” just doesn’t sound appropriately serious for a car accident (although, perversely, it does have the proper gravitas for trains or ships), and “busted” is what happens when someone is caught in the act.  Food for thought: what if the chorus of Depeche Mode’s 2005 single “Precious” began with the words “Things get busted, things get wrecked”?  I ask you—would it have made it as far up the charts as it did?

Televesion is a low-probability typo with 3 entries in the OhioLINK database and 41 in WorldCat.  Don’t let your catalog get busted with this in its possession.

(The wreck of a stolen Swedish commuter train, 2013, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak