Leonardo Stays Lost, Vasari Stays Intact

September 25, 2012, 2:55 pm

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

ROMEâ€"A project searching for a lost mural by Leonardo da Vinci behind a fresco painted by Giorgio Vasari in the Palazzo Vecchio, now Florence's city hall, has been suspended and the scaffolding that has covered the fresco for months will be dismantled this week.

Last November, a team led by Maurizio Seracini, the director of San Diego's Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology at the University of California, bored several holes into the Vasari work to allow an endoscopic probe to look for possible remnants of Leonardo's “The Battle of Anghiari,” commissioned by the Republic of Florence around 1503. The controversial decision to perforate the Vasari fresco, p ainted some 50 years later, led to objections from many conservators.

Earlier this summer local art authorities turned down a request to bore new holes to pursue the research, effectively shutting it down.
The project was backed by the National Geographic Society and had the support of Florence mayor Matteo Renzi.

The six points of entry for the probe, chosen by the Florentine restorers working on the project, were made in places where there was no original paint, but they did not correspond to points Mr. Seracini had been hoping to explore.

Nonetheless, in a statement issued last month, the National Geographic Society said that the data derived from the probes had encouraged the scientific team. “The results of the research support Seracini's theory that the lost Battle of Anghiari lies behind a wall built by Giorgio Vasari,” the statement said.

Reached by telephone in Florence, Mr. Seracini, who has searched for the Leonardo fresco for deca des, said the project had had to overcome many obstacles from the start. “And now we have lost an opportunity,” he said.

He said that he would soon submit the initial results of the research to a peer review.

Beyond the Runways, What\'s on in Paris

Previous Post Beneath Rushdie's Feet, the Shifting Ground of India

Some Things Never Change

Conventions of 1912 were described as having "psychopathic" conditions. In 1966, a columnist wrote that George Romney was "almost too good to be true." And in 1974, Richard Nixon got the editorial cartoon treatment. Take a peek into our archive to see how has the IHT covered U.S. politics in the past.

Early and Often

September 25, 2012, 8:00 am

By PHILIP B. CORBETT

Even if the nonstop commercials and coverage didn't tip you off, there are certain words in the air that unmistakably say, “It's election time!”

Political buzzwords and jargon are rampant, and our coverage is not immune. Some of these terms are unavoidable. But we should be aware, and be on the lookout for alternatives to the worst offenders.

With help from my colleague Patrick LaForge and others, I've rounded up just a few examples - some perennials, some newcomers.

 

The Search for ‘Resonance'

This relative newcomer is quickly establishing itself in the political-cliché firmament. Issues and arguments are “resonating” all over the nation and all over our stories . Possible alternatives include affect, appeal to, matter to, concern, be of concern to, etc.

---

Mr. Romney's campaign released 15 new ads in all, each focused on a specific state and the issues most likely to resonate with voters there.

Last week, Randy Falco, Univision's chief executive, wrote a letter urging the Commission on Presidential Debates to add a debate that would focus on issues like education, health care and immigration that particularly resonate with Hispanic voters.

Obviously, the politics are not quite that simple - Democrats could campaign on the issue, and maybe their arguments would resonate among voters who would see less personal impact from Mr. Ryan's proposed changes.

Political messaging isn't a simple matter, and skilled political candidates can develop pitches that resonate with different audiences.

Mitt Romney's campaign advisers have concluded that they do not need any major adjustments in strategy to respon d to the new focus on abortion and reproductive rights caused by Representative Todd Akin, betting that their candidate's economic message will still resonate with female voters after the controversy over Mr. Akin's remarks about “legitimate rape” subsides.

 

War Chests and Battlegrounds

“War chest” is a particularly tired example of the martial metaphors that pepper campaign coverage (though “campaign coffers” is tired, too). “Battleground states” is another overdone war trope.

---

Though Republican “super PACs” gave him cover by showing their own ads during the summer, Mr. Romney was limited by campaign finance regulations from spending his $185 million war chest on advertising until he officially became the nominee.

And since then, he has raised $788,000 for his campaign war chest - more than 40 times what his challenger in the Republican primary raised.

Now that Mr. Romney is the official nominee, he will be free to spend his huge general election campaign war chest, which, according to the most recent report, stood at more than $180 million.

If Romney can pull that off, he will leave Tampa ahead in the polls, flush with cash, having shaken off the negatives the Democrats have blown their war chest flinging at him.

 

Shore Up, Then Solidify

Besides seeking resonance, campaigns spend a lot of time trying to “solidify” and “shore up” support.

---

The Obama campaign hopes the convention will be a boon to organizing efforts and help solidify gains in its newly won territory.

Further, Mr. Boehner probably expects his toil and largess will be remembered by some of the more raucous corners of his conference should they prevail this November, and will help him solidify his support among those members.

The trip was much like any of the hundreds hosted in recent years by a nonprofit off shoot of the American Israel Public Affairs Co mmittee, a powerful Washington lobby, and the purpose was much the same: to solidify the support of American lawmakers for Israel at a time of Middle East tumult.

 

Keeping Their Distance

What's a politician to do if an issue doesn't “resonate” with voters? Better “distance” yourself, and quick.

---

Senator Scott P. Brown, a Republican who is locked in a tight re-election battle against Elizabeth Warren, used them to distance himself from his party - a necessity in deep-blue Massachusetts

Representative Paul D. Ryan sought to distance himself from Todd Akin, his House colleague, on Wednesday by condemning his comments about rape, even while deflecting questions about the meaning of “forcible rape.”

The speaker did not distance himself from the proposal itself.

 

Stumbling Along

Besides seeking issues that resonate and distancing themselves from unpopular stances, politicians must avoid mistakes - or †œstumbles,” as they are now officially known.

---

Romney Stumbles in Explaining Iran Policy
But the imprecise language suggested that Mr. Romney had stumbled over the distinction at the core of the debate over whether a military strike against Iran is justified.

Mr. Obama's aides initially appeared to stumble when television interviewers asked them to respond to Mr. Romney's charge in his nomination acceptance speech Thursday night that Americans were not better off under Mr. Obama.

He [Obama] savored Mr. Romney's stumbles in the Republican primaries this time around, an adviser said, professing wonder that it took him so long to lock up the nomination.

The “Meet the Press” appearance would seem to signal a new phase for Mr. Romney, when chances for exposure on network television - especially after his opponent's big week - must outweigh the risks of a stumble or gaffe.

Opponent Made the Stumble, but a Candidate Still Watches H er Step

 

The Usual Suspects

The list goes on. Some longstanding entries in the field that show no sign of fading:

double down
neck and neck
optics
pivot
narrative
on the ground

Let's look for other options.

 

In a Word

This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

---

Six of the jets, which each cost between $23 million and $30 million when they were first acquired by the United States Navy, according to a General Accounting Office report, were completely destroyed and two more were so severely damaged it was unlikely they could be repaired.

“Destroyed” means ruined, and doesn't need the modifier here.

---

A natural curiosity about how the material has been translated into a new medium tends to be outweighed by a general foreboding born of past experience.

“Past” is unnecessary and gives this phr ase a clichéd feel; all experience happens in the past.

---

Of course, quotations often serve as furniture in a house that a reporter is free to build as she or he (or their editor) wishes, so it's not as if sources can control the narrative by controlling what appears between quotation marks.

The plural “their” is awkward referring to the singular “he or she.” It could have simply been “an editor.”

---

In 2010, Apple filed a patent application for a small fuel-cell power supply that could potentially give the iPhone and iPad enough juice to last for weeks without the need to plug them in.

The slang seems unnecessary and out of place in a straight piece.

---

The hawkish Romney adviser has been secunded to manage the running mate and graft a Manichaean worldview onto the foreign affairs neophyte.

Just a typo, I guess, but a pretty ugly one: make it “seconded.”

---

These companies, which include communications media like Facebook and Twitter, write their own edicts about what kind of expression is allowed, things as diverse as pointed political criticism, nudity and notions as murky as hate speech.

Piling “as murky as” on top of “as diverse as,” in the same series, leaves this awkward and convoluted.

---

But this week lawmakers approved a measure permitting a statue of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, which has been holed up for years in a District government building a mile away, to be placed in the Capitol, as soon as President Obama signs the bill.

Our dictionary says “holed up” is informal, and it calls to mind gun molls and gats. It also doesn't make sense in reference to a statue. Try “stored” or “kept.”

---

Last year, he demonstrated how, in some cases, U.D.I.D.'s could be used to find a person's identity, determine their location and even hijack their Facebook profile.

The plural “their” doesn't work with the singular “a person.” Rephrase.

---

State officials said the changes have not discouraged voters.

A sequence-of-tenses problem. Make it “said the changes had not discouraged” or “said the changes were not discouraging.”

---

The jibe apparently referred not to Obama's statement but to one issued independently by the U.S. embassy in Cairo, deploring the video.

Recorded announcement: The word meaning “jeer, taunt” is “gibe.”

---

Whatever the motivation, at the end of the day, it all comes down to creating value, whether it's business value or personal value.

Trite. At the end of the day … it gets dark outside.

---

Marigay McKee, chief merchant at Harrods, said that the past five years had been a game changer.

This unwelcome bit of sports jargon has already been beaten to death in politics and business stories. Let's resist.

---

Neither Mr. Liu nor Ms. R u have been charged with any wrongdoing.

Make it “has.”

---

Jamaica, also understandably, made just one change but appeared mostly disinterested in attacking for much of the night.

In precise writing, use “uninterested” to mean “lacking interest.”

---

Of Mumbai's 30 square kilometers, or 11.6 square miles, of open space, only 10 square kilometers is actually available and being used - a miniscule 0.88 square meters, or approximately just 9 square feet, per person.

Minuscule with a U, of course.

Number Trouble

September 18, 2012, 8:00 am

By PHILIP B. CORBETT

Here's another roundup of setbacks and slips in our continuing struggle to make verbs agree with their subjects and pronouns with their antecedents.

Sometimes it's trickier than it seems. But still …

---

The sprawling air base, in the Attock district of Punjab, is believed by some Western experts to be one of the locations where elements of Pakistan's nuclear stockpile, estimated to include at least 100 warheads, is stored.

As often happens, the phrase in between the subject and verb threw us off track. Make it “elements … are stored.”

---

NAIROBI, Kenya â€" China's investment prowess and construction know-how is widely on display in this long-congested African capital.

A compound subject like this is plural and should take a plural verb. We frequently go astray when, as here, the nouns in the subject are abstract. Make it “investment prowess and construction know-how are on display.”

---

Of course, nowhere is the hysteria and anticipation more frenzied than at Alabama and L.S.U., the teams that played for last year's national championship.

The same problem here, with a compound subject containing abstract nouns; the inverted structure may have contributed to the confusion. Make it “nowhere are the hysteria and anticipation …”

---

Like their opponents in Boston, Obama's team prides itself on being grounded in “objective” campaign realities rather than the “virtual” ones spat forth by the news cycle.

The plural “their” has no plural noun for its antecedent; “team” is singular, as the singular “prides” and “itself” make clear. In this case, it's probably best to make the whole thing plural, e.g. “Like their opponents in Boston, members of Obama's team pride themselves …”

---

At Marea, Michael White's Italian restaurant on Central Park South, for instance, the hedge fund manager William A. Ackman is a regular and one of many customers who rates an NR, never refuse.

No diatribe about subject/verb agreement would be complete without an example of this problem. Remember, in this construction, the relative clause describes the group of people with something in common, not just the one person who is a member of that group. Or, in grammatical terms, the antecedent of the relative pronoun “who” is the plural “customers,” not the singular “one.” So make it “one of many customers who rate …”

---

After the economic downturn forced them to close Four Rivers, their high-end Thai spot in Fort Lauderdale, they came north - not to open another Thai restaurant, but to help run the kitchen of one of those charming Maine inns that serves lobster and chowder.

Same problem. The relative clause describes not just their specific inn, but all those charming Maine inns that have something in common - they serve lobster and chowder.

---

The state's ethics commission met in secret on Tuesday to discuss how and whether to proceed in their investigation of the Assembly's handling of the matter, including Mr. Silver's decision to authorize a monetary settlement to two members of Mr. Lopez's staff who alleged that they had been harassed by him.

“Commission” is singular; the pronoun should be “its.”

 

Slapdashes

Loose use of dashes can lead to trouble. A couple of recent examples:

---

The list of global banks that have been accused in recent years of laundering foreign transactions totaling billions of dollars has been growing - Credit Suisse, Lloyds, Barclays, ING, HSBC - and now Standard Chartered.

There sh ould be just one dash, before “Credit Suisse,” not two. Dashes set off parenthetical material that could be removed while leaving the rest of the sentence intact. Here, if we remove just what's between the dashes, the final phrase “and now Standard Chartered” doesn't fit the sentence.

---

At a time when powerful career women are showcased at each convention - former secretaries of state, senators, governors, activists - the role of the president's wife - or an aspiring president's wife - seems pretty much frozen in the template set by Jacqueline Kennedy and Pat Nixon.

Using more than one pair of dashes in a sentence creates confusion and should be avoided. In this case the problem was fixed for later editions by using commas in place of the second pair of dashes.

 

In a Word

This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

---

The apartment's windows, covered wi th metal grating, are about a foot-and-a-half above the sidewalk.

No hyphens needed here.

---

Twelve days later, she was found strangled to death.

Redundant. This is the equivalent of saying “killed to death.”

---

The Stanford researchers said that by providing an objective review of the current science of organic foods, their goal was to allow people to make informed choices.

A dangler: “their goal” isn't providing an objective view, the researchers are.

---

Although Mr. Annan got both sides to commit verbally to a cease-fire in March, there was never even the semblance of one.

If we meant via spoken word here, we meant “orally.”

---

[Editorial] And he clearly laid out a vision for governing squarely at odds with the one that Mr. Romney has, but was hidden from view at last week's Republican convention in Tampa, Fla.

We should have repeated “that” before “was hidden.” “That† functions as the object of “has,” but as the subject of “was hidden.” The same word can't switch case like that, so we need to supply another “that” for the second clause.

---

When Mr. Francescon arrived, he put the kibosh on the plan. To him, the bedrooms were shockingly small.

This somewhat dated slang didn't add anything.

---

Madame President

[Caption] “The American Presidential Experience,” a traveling exhibit, has landed in Charlotte, N.C., to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. Above, Jyoti Vashee taking a photograph of her children, Shivali, 13, and Rushil, 9, at the exhibit's mock Oval Office.

Make it “Madam” President.

---

He noted that Mrs. Clinton had stopped raising money, making endorsements or, for the most part, inveighing on political debates. “She's had to miss everything on that front ever since January 2009.”

“Inveigh” means to make a verbal attack. Did we mean “weighing in”?

---

[Column] Both women spoke winningly, but Mrs. Obama, who has addressed a political convention before, gave the strongest performance.

Make it “stronger,” since there were only two performances.

---

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia now prohibit teenagers from driving with another teenager, and all but seven states forbid them from driving with more than one.

Say “forbid them to drive” rather than “forbid them from driving.”

---

The implications extend beyond Florida. Elderly voters are significant forces in Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia and Pennsylvania, all states that could help determine the outcome of the election.

We used an extra “and” when a comma would have been correct for the series.

---

Representative Kathy Hochul of Erie County is meeting with small business owners.

It's in the stylebook: small-business owners.

Save the Subjunctive!

September 11, 2012, 8:00 am

By PHILIP B. CORBETT

The peril is not new. Indeed, one Ida M. Mason warned darkly of the danger in the pages of The Times back in 1924.

The shadow she feared was, of course, “the frequent disregard of the subjunctive mood, from the pens of those who should know better.” And since then - despite my repeated efforts to rally support for Ms. Mason's cause - the crisis has only grown.

For those few still unaware of the stakes, here is a reminder from The Times's stylebook (Garner and the American Heritage usage manual have useful summaries as well):

subjunctive. Use this form of verb to express a wishful notion or a proposition contrary to fact:

- The mayor wishes the commissioner were ret iring this year (not was retiring, because the commissioner is staying on).
- If the commissioner were rich, she could retire (not was rich, because she needs the salary).
- If the bill were passed, taxes could go down (not was passed, because it is still just a hope).

Do not use the subjunctive form (even with a tantalizing if in the sentence) when the intent is merely to convert an is idea to the past tense:

- The mayor asked if the commissioner was rich (the past version of asks if she is rich).
- Secretary Kuzu asked if the bill was going to pass this year (simply the past version of asks if it is).

But: If the bill were going to pass, Secretary Kuzu would know by now (not was going to pass, but were, because the hypothesis is untrue: the bill is unlikely to pass).

One cue to use the subjunctive is the phrase as though or (preferred) as if. Either phrase signifies that what follows is contrary to fact: Secretary Kuzu acts as if she were (not was) in the White House. The actor looked as if he were sick.

Here are a few examples of lapses, including contributions from sharp-eyed readers (though not from Ida M. Mason):

---

One reason is that American workers are particularly ill equipped to cope with the dislocations caused by foreign competition. An American worker who loses her job to trade or technology will find herself in a much worse spot than if she was, say, German or French.

This is what the grammarians call a contrary-to-fact condition - the worker is not, in fact, German or French - and so it requires the subjunctive. Make it “than if she were, say, German or French.” (The conditional part of the construction is implied: “in a much worse spot than [she would be] if she were …”)

---

The governor, too, is a boisterous guardian of his public image; his video team follows him everywhere and spins out product as if it is a runaway MTV unit.

Another contrary-to-fact condition - in reality, the New Jersey governor's video team is not a runaway MTV unit. Make it “as if it were a runaway MTV unit.” (Or, in this case, we could have stuck with what the writer originally filed: “spins out product like a runaway MTV unit.”)

---

The store's policy is that whoever has the next number is the next in line. If you would have walked through the front door and said, “I'll give $1,000 to whoever gives me a number that gets me to the front of the line the fastest,” there isn't any way you could be stopped. …

A good personal policy for what can (and can't) be expensed can be established through this self-directed question: “Is this something I would pay for if I was operating inside my own life, or is this something I'm only doing because I'm not paying for it?”

A column like this strives for a conversational tone, but conversational doesn't have to mean ungrammatical. In the first case, we didn't want the conditional “would have walked” but the subjunctive “had walked.” In the second instance, make it the subjunctive “if I were operating.”

---

Maybe - just maybe - stopping the Keystone pipeline would be worth it if it really was going to change our behavior and help usher in the age of renewable energy.

Another contrary-to-fact condition. Make it “if it really were going to change …”

---

He suggested that, if the City Council were unhappy, perhaps Apple could move. The company is Cupertino's largest taxpayer, with more than $8 million in property taxes assessed by local officials last year.

This one is a hypercorrection; we used the subjunctive when it was not wanted. Sequence-of-tense rules after the past “suggested” required the simple past tense: “if the City Council was unhappy” (see the last example in the stylebook entry above).

 

In a Word

This week's grab bag of g rammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

---

Officials from this week's delegation have remained in Egypt to hammer out the details of the American debt assistance, which they said would be completed in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund program.

This use of a time element as a possessive modifier is awkward and confusing, and “hammer out the details” is a cliché to be avoided.

---

Yet if that answer remains elusive, interviews with more than two dozen former and current administration officials offer a portrait of a woman wielding a many-faceted portfolio of power.

An overstuffed phrase. Simplify.

---

The decision will have no immediate practical effect, because the 2001 law that it overturned was not enforced while lawsuits challenging its constitutionality winded through the courts.

“Wound,” of course.

---

You can agree with everything that Rac hel Maddow or Ed Schultz say on MSNBC and still oppose their right to say it.

“And” would take care of the pronoun-agreement problem.

---

Example 1:

This unprecedented three-night stint in Brooklyn's epicenter is a testament to its appeal.

Example 2:

When tech meant only hardware and chips, Silicon Valley, home to Stanford's computer science department and large swaths of land for big factories, was the obvious epicenter.

Do not use “epicenter” as a synonym for “center.” It refers to the area on the earth's surface above the origin of an earthquake. (It's also a cliché.)

---

NEW ORLEANS - Seven years to the day that Hurricane Katrina and levee failures unleashed a deluge of devastation on the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Isaac brought its own distinctive mode of destruction on Wednesday, drenching the coast not with a quick blow but with an unremitting smothering.

Idiom requires “after,” not “that.”

---

Example 1:

Amazon has always declined to reveal Kindle sales, and estimates have been all over the map.

Example 2:

Klizan, who is ranked 50th, played steadily as Tsonga's game went all over the map: beautiful shots alternating with careless errors hit into the net.

Two usages of this cliché on one day is too many.

---

DETROIT - The Obama administration issued on Tuesday the final version of new rules that require automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks by 2025.

Ideally, the time element goes after the verb and its direct object. If, as here, the object is too long to allow that, put the time element before the verb, not between the verb and object: “The Obama administration on Tuesday issued the final version …”

---

The current argument has a touch of irony. The developers sold the project to the public power entities (municipal electric departments, power authoriti es and co-operatives) in part with the argument that they could reduce their exposure to the vicissitudes of the electricity marketplace by becoming owners rather than buying on the spot market, and by buying the fuel as well as the power plant, in the form of a 30-year coal supply adjacent to the plant.

Worth remembering, from the stylebook:

irony, in precise usage, is a restrained form of sarcasm in which the intent of a phrase differs from its literal meaning, often for rhetorical effect (His brilliant plan nearly bankrupted the company). The looser use of irony and ironically, to mean an incongruous turn of events, is trite. Not every coincidence, curiosity, oddity and paradox is an irony, even loosely. And where irony does exist, sophisticated writing counts on the reader to recognize it.

---

Mr. Silver's office would not say on Monday specifically why this case was not referred to the ethics committee, but said that such a case would not be referred only if that is what the victim requested, suggesting that is what had occurred.

This sentence is almost indecipherable. Try again.

---

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Residents of this debt-laden state capital are facing a court-ordered income tax increase of 1 percent as part of an effort to repair the city's perilous finances.

The tax increase was actually 100 percent, as the article later makes clear: to 2 percent from 1 percent. Make the lede read: “… a court-ordered income tax increase of one percentage point,” or “a court-ordered doubling of the city income tax.”

---

Karlgaard said that six weeks after the position was named, a donor endowed one of Stanford's assistant men's basketball coaching positions in honor of a former board of trustees chair, and that it was mostly unnoticed outside Stanford.

Our style is “chairman” or “chairwoman.”

---

Virgil never visited the Bronx, but hi s legacy endures there as the borough's official slogan, a proverb that seems to have been honored lately more in the breach than in the observance.

A common misunderstanding of the Shakespeare passage. Here's what the stylebook says:

more honored in the breach. The passage more honored in the breach than the observance, from “Hamlet,” refers to a custom that is more honorably ignored than followed - not one that is more often ignored.

The Dangers of Hosting a Successful Olympics

Simon Anholt is an independent policy advisor who helps national, regional and city governments develop and implement strategies for enhanced economic, political and cultural engagement with other countries.

Canada\'s Latest Iranian Caper

Canada has announced it has withdrawn its diplomats from Tehran and is closing Iran's embassy in Ottowa. Does the move amount to more pressure on the Iranian regime - or do the Canadians know more than we do?

China\'s No. 3 Metropolis Moves to Limit New Cars

GUANGZHOU, China - It is as startling as if Detroit or Los Angeles restricted car ownership.

The municipal government of Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis that is one of China's biggest auto manufacturing centers, introduced license plate auctions and lotteries last week that will roughly halve the number of new cars on the streets.

The crackdown by China's third-largest city is the most restrictive in a series of moves by big Chinese cities that are putting quality-of-life issues ahead of short-term economic growth, something the central government has struggled to do on a national scale.

The measures have the potential to help clean up China's notoriously dirty air and water, reduce long-term health care costs and improve the long-term quality of Chinese growth. But they are also imposing short-term costs, economists say, at a time when policy makers in Beijing and around the world are already concerned about a sharp economic slowdown in China.

“Of course from the government's point of view, we give up some growth, but to achieve better health for all citizens, it is definitely worth it,” said Chen Haotian, the vice director of Guangzhou's top planning agency.

Nanjing and Hangzhou in east-central China are moving to require cleaner gas and diesel. Cities near the coast, from Dongguan and Shenzhen in southeastern China to Wuxi and Suzhou in the middle and Beijing in the north, are pushing out polluting factories. And Xi'an and Urumqi in northwestern China are banning and scrapping cars built before 2005, when automotive emissions rules were less stringent.

“There's a recognition finally that growth at all costs is not sustainable,” said Ben Simpfendorfer, the managing director of Silk Road Associates, a Hong Kong consulting firm.

Facing public pressure to address traffic jams and pollution, municipal governments from across China have been sending delegations to Guangzhou. But the national government in Beijing is pushing back against further car restrictions because of worries about the huge auto industry, said An Feng, a senior adviser in Beijing to transportation policy makers.

“This has really become a battle,” Mr. An said.

Beijing's municipal government started limiting new license plates at the start of last year when the economy was in danger of overheating, but Guangzhou is the first city to act during the current slowdown. Faced with public dissatisfaction over traffic, Guangzhou has also built an extensive subway system in the last few years, along with large parks and a renowned opera house.

The local government initiatives are not the main cause of the Chinese economy's difficulties. The government clamped down on credit a year ago in a successful bid to rein in inflation, but starved many small and medium-size businesses of credit in the process.

Other broad economic problems have been building for years. These include industrial overcapacity and the monopolistic grip of many state-owned enterprises, as well as the inefficient allocation of loans.

But for now, the growing regulatory burden on business is reinforcing a trend toward slower growth, economists say.

“That's why I think the slowdown is likely to be a trend, instead of just a short-term cycle,” said Xiao Geng, the research director at the Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong.

Polluting factories being pushed out of increasingly affluent cities in southeastern China are being turned away by poorer cities in western and northern China unless they install costly, extensive equipment to control emissions, said Stanley Lau, the deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Industries, a trade group representing manufacturers that employ nearly 10 million workers in mainland China.

“There is no hint that these costs will be lowered because of the market slowdown,” he said.

In a Word

September 4, 2012, 8:00 am

By PHILIP B. CORBETT

For the end of summer, here's an extra-large grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

---

Convention planners were downplaying suggestions early Tuesday that their event might yet be reduced to a single night, saying that while they were keeping a close eye on the storm, they were continuing with their revised schedule full steam ahead.

From The Times's stylebook:

downplay. An ungainly leftover from the age of penny-a-word telegram economies. Make it play down.

---

Through the narrow corridors and battered shelves of the cozy store in the storied Brill Building in Times Square, a knowing worke r will then peruse and (more often than not) find the sheet music, vinyl record or CD the person is looking for.

“Peruse” is not a synonym for search; it means to read or study, and takes a direct object. Not the phrasing we wanted here.

---

Mrs. Ryan's mother struggled with cancer for the last 35 years of her life, first battling advanced melanoma, then breast cancer, then ovarian cancer and a recurrence of the melanoma she thought she had beat.

Make it “had beaten.”

---

Nebraskans approved it by a margin of more than 2-to-1.

Campaign alert: The margin, as the stylebook notes, is “the difference between two values.” “More than 2 to 1″ is a ratio or proportion (and also doesn't need hyphens here).

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The idea that during rape, “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down” to prevent pregnancy, as Mr. Akin said, has surfaced periodically among anti-abortion advocates over the past two decades, usually involving the term “forcible rape” to refer to what Mr. Akin called “legitimate.”

Avoid this head-spinning combination of pro and con. “Abortion opponents” is simple and clear.

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That Mr. Holmes, who is being held in the Arapahoe County jail awaiting arraignment on 142 criminal counts, deteriorated to the point of deadly violence cannot help but raise questions about the adequacy of the treatment he received and about the steps the university took or failed to take in dealing with a deeply troubled student.

The stylebook prefers “cannot help raising.”

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I first landed at Bank of America not by choice, but by acquisition. Some 20 years ago, I became a customer of Bank South when I moved to Atlanta as a youngish journalist. (My discerning criteria at the time was that it had a branch near my apartment and an A.T.M. near my office.)

“Criteria” is plural. Use “criterion” or choose a different word.

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Mr. Romney, a Mormon, and Mr. Ryan, a Catholic, also represent a new era in presidential politics: neither are Protestants.

Make it “neither is a Protestant.”

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Looking back at London 2012 (the closing ceremony is today), watching how the Duchess dressed may very well have been one of the Games' most heavily spectated sports.

The verb “spectate” is probably best avoided, but in any case it's intransitive and shouldn't be used as a passive participle like this. (Also, the introductory phrase here seems to be a dangler.)

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BOSTON - Mitt Romney read Scripture from his iPad as he juggled his 2-year-old grandson on his lap. He made sure to accept a small piece of white bread and cup of water, representing the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, from a member of the priesthood who looked like he was about to accidentally pass him by.

Avoid this use of “like” as a conjunction. Make it “as if.”

- --

Many criminals in the city are becoming more sophisticated, like using high-tech tools for identity theft and other forms of computer crimes.

A different “like” problem - there's no noun here for the “like” phrase to refer to. Rephrase.

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Prosecutors loosened howls of indignation. Prominent prosecutorial sorts have written letters in the past month and intimated they will no longer serve on committees if such calumnies stand.

The word we wanted here was “loosed,” meaning “released.”

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Ms. Brown said her columns and Twitter posts were her own writing - she also has penned two recent Op-Ed articles for The New York Times, one calling Planned Parenthood too ideologically driven, and another saying President Obama can be condescending to women - and dismissed accusations that she was doing anyone else's bidding.

“Penned” is journalese. “Wrote” is perfectly good.

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One bypasser said as he exited, “Those two really know how to bring the house down.”

Make it “passer-by.”

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Confident his teammates were on board, he hopped a flight Saturday afternoon.

The idiom used in this sentence about the football player Nick Mangold's trip to London to watch his sister in the Olympics creates unintended ambiguity. Mangold's Jets teammates were figuratively “on board” with his flight, but were not on the plane.

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“If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, video is worth 5,000 pictures and so to have any sort of raw footage is incredibly helpful to investigators,” said Larry Cunningham, a former Bronx prosecutor who is an associate professor and associate dean at St. John's University School of Law in Queens.

The numeral doesn't work in this phrase. Make it “a thousand words.”

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Advocates for Mr. Ryan argue that he would be a boon to Mr. Romney on the ballot by cementing in voters' minds an economic v ision for the country that is very different than Mr. Obama's.

Make it “different from.”

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In that regard, the tax could have enormous symbolic value as a blow for egalité, coming from a new president who has proclaimed, “I don't like the rich.”

If we're going to use French - appropriately enough, in this story about France - we have to get it right, accents and all. Make it “égalité.”

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You can imagine the Goldstein family's dinner table was a blast, too: debates on the merits of Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln's first vice president, verses John Nance Garner, one of F.D.R.'s three, who famously compared the vice presidency to ”a bucket of warm spit.”

Ouch. Make it “versus.”

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That feeling may fuel one of the Democrats' great hopes â€" that threats to abortion rights, attacks on Planned Parenthood and objections to the health care law's requirement that insurance plans cover birth control p ills â€" will prove to be more meaningful for single women than jobs plans.

There should not be a second dash here. Better still, streamline the sentence.

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But Mrs. Fournier, the smoking foe, thinks the soft approach is doomed.

“Foe” means enemy, as the stylebook points out. It's hyperbole in many contexts, where “opponent” would be perfectly adequate.

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The government fought back hard, with no indication that its far superior military machine had lost its edge against an opposition still working predominately with small-caliber weapons.

As the stylebook says, use “predominantly” as the adverb.

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[Caption] Mahmoud Shedid, left, Omar Hamed, center, and his brother Abdelrahman Hamed filled up on a pre-dawn meal in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, on Wednesday before their daily Ramadan fast.

The stylebook advises, “Ordinarily close up compounds formed with pre unless the prefix is directly followed by an e or an uppercase letter.” But there is a reason “predawn” does not even appear in our dictionary: it is an unfortunate journalistic cliché of recent vintage.

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Ms. Gu and the family aide, Zhang Xiaojun, are accused of killing Mr. Heywood in a hotel on the outskirts of Chongqing after what the state media has described as “a conflict of economic interests.”

Monolithic but still plural: make it “media have” (or “news media have”).

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Federal District Court Judge Paul G. Gardephe's résumé includes many impressive accomplishments but not an art history degree. Nonetheless he has been asked to answer a question on which even pre-eminent art experts cannot agree: Are three reputed masterworks of Modernism genuine or fake.

This is a direct question and should end with a question mark.

What Would a President Romney Mean for the Arab Spring? For Europe?

Whether Barack Obama is re-elected or Mitt Romney becomes the 45th president of the United States, the challenges of the Arab Spring will be there to confront either man. In addition, a President Romney might have some international fences to mend.

Merkel in China: A Dissenting View

As Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany arrived in China for a high-profile visit, the dissident artist Ai Weiwei was watching - and waiting.

Summer Break Over in Formula One? Sort of ...

Formula One may have returned to continue its racing season after a break of five weeks, but there was practically no track action at Spa-Francorchamps during the opening practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix, thanks to heavy rain. For the thousands of spectators, that was a cold shower costing several hundred euros.

What I Saw at the Republican Convention

The outcome of American elections affect the entire world -- yet most people outside the United States (and many inside) don't understand American politics. I anchored our livestreaming coverage from the Republican convention and will do the same at the Democrats. Send me your questions about American politics, the political parties and Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Lebanon, Syria and the Missing Imam

The spiritual leader of Lebanon's Shiites disappeared 34 years ago on Friday. As the community faces a spillover from the conflict in Syria that threatens the rule of its traditional patron, Bashar al-Assad, some politicians may have an interest in maintaining the mystery surrounding the fate of Imam Musa Sadr.

Breathing Life Into a Dead Language

The Vatican wants to revive Latin for the benefit not only of the church but of the wider secular world. But what are the advantages of knowing a dead language in a global economy that operates in languages such as English and Mandarin?