When use of 'out' when 'in' would have done.

In a news item on March 4, 2013, The Hindu said this: "They got two children born out of their wedlock". That was not the newspaper had meant to convey.

The report was about a couple who quarreled and then resumed their marital life after which they had two children. That is very much within the wedlock.

It is possible that the writer literally translated what is said for the same thing in any Indian language - it happened from out of it, or because of it. The out here is not the same as saying, for instance, out of frustration, he screamed.

That error could mean a lot to the couple. The man in has been identified by name, about how a criminal case against him following his wife's complaint - fortunately not named - led to a criminal case. That led to denial of a job for which he otherwise qualified.

We do not know if the person complained to the newspaper or threatened it with a suit because children out of wedlock reflected adversely to their reputation. The Reader' Editor corrected it in his Corrections and clarifications column on March 7.

There is another issue with the construction of that unintended mischievous sentence in the report. Why "got two children born out of their wedlock? Why not merely the two children (if it were really so, and I am pushing it here only  for argument's sake) born out of wedlock?

'Mercurial' and alternatives

Adjectives are a strict no-no when writing news, news as in only facts. An adjective preceding a fact turns the fact into an opionon, a subjective belief. But The Economist has been a magazine - it calls itself a newspaper - which is liberal with the adjective.

'Mercurial' is an adjective the magazine has been using of late when describing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, not once but several times. An alert London reader counting it was used ten times for one subject, Sarkozy which raised his eyebrows and let his fingers fly while punching the computer keyboard. Mercurial was "overused" he wrote in his letter published in the newspaper's November 19 edition.

Ross Hobart offered 15 alternatives to the ten-times used word: capricious, chnageable, erratic, expansive, fickle, irrepressible lubricious, spirited, unpredictable, unstable,variable, and volatile. But think of it, nothing fits Sarkozy better that 'mercurial' does.

For instance, there are only two ways of describing the French President's height: short. Diminutive wouldn't quite say what 'short' does and given his stature, diminutive wouldn't quite be mot juste. So use of a Thesarus is not always the best way out. If Sarkozy is short and merciruail that is what he is. Anbd those are the best words that says it all.