Every weekend since mid-January we have had a snowstorm. One of them was a whopper: the TV weathermen called it Superstorm or "Blizzacane" Nemo. The winds blew hard from the northeast, and of course the papers and television reports were soon full of reports of the damage done by the dreadful "nor'easter."
Now, I am one of a vanishing breed that thinks the term "nor'easter" is an abomination. I grew up on the New England coast, knowing practically from birth that the only proper pronunciation is "no'theaster" or maybe "no'theasta." You can say "sou'wester," "nor'wester," or "s'utheaster," but NEVER "nor'easter. It just isn't right.
A few years ago I wrote an indignant op-ed about it, for the Gloucester Daily Times. It had legs. Soon I was getting requests for rewrites for other communities, ranging from New Jersey to Maine. I was interviewed by National Public Radio.
But then the Gloucester Times got a new editor, who promptly started using the hateful word. The Boston Globe started using the abomination. I called someone there and was told "Oh, we use the AP stylebook. That's the way they say it."
Then for a long time I took solace in the fact that the New York Times still eschewed the term, faithfully writing "northeaster" even though all others seemed to have abandoned that sturdy appellation. But now I've learned that while the paper has not fully abandoned its policy, it tolerates the use of the term within its pages. I'm not sure I understand this fudging, but it looks like the prelude to total capitulation.
I hate it and will fight it till the day I die. But I may be pretty much alone, a latter-day Canute trying to hold back the tides that incessantly pound the shore in a northeast storm.
