Even the much revered Globe and Mail is slipping, has slipped. I guess they don't have proof readers or checkers any more. So you often see it's for its, reason is because or reason why instead of reason that, and I've given up on lie/lay. Strunk and White, thou shouldst be living at this hour! And boy, did I have to go back and correct that sentence because the presumptuous, predictive editor kept trying to change what I was trying to say. I've had this discussion before. I don't mind the built-in monitor correcting my typos, but putting words in my mouth - i.e. in my expression, is too much. I was going to say platen but that word is from an earlier era when we wrote on a typewriter. We still have keyboards but no platens.
Okay, here's something for you to check on for me. I have an argument with the misuse of vocabulary and the bad press women get with their various synonyms. This is an excerpt from the book I am in the throes of writing.
"Anyone who works a few crossword puzzles knows that crone is a synonym for old woman, hag or witch, some times virago, although that word was at one time complimentary, stemming from the Latin for man (vir) and describing a strong female warrior. Usually, though, virago means a domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman. Even gossip, the dear old soul, is now dismissed as a gabby old woman who jabbers about other people’s private lives. Gossip originally derived from the late Old English godsibb, from god, God, plus sib, a relative, someone related to God, a godmother or godfather, a baptismal sponsor, and a very respectable person. What a demotion for the old biddy (there’s another one) that comes to mind now! And the verb, to gossip, has nothing respectable about it, with connotations of untruth, exaggeration and salacious material."
An editor friend disagrees with me about crossword puzzles. She claims she hasn't seen the synonyms I have mentioned, that the relationship is an old stereotype long since retired. Just days after she accused me of being out of sync with the times, I found another clue in a new G&M crossword, with the answer hag as a synonym for crone. So there.
See what your crosswords have to offer about this undefeated, prolonged, built-in editorial, and while you're at it, check out Mary Daly (1928-2010), may she rest in peace, but I doubt it. Take a look at her Wickedary (1987) written with Janue Caputi, and get back to me.