Margaret Serious
‘I’m OK with that’ is not OK with me!
I’ve done it again. I just looked at the Chicago Tribune sports section and got worried needlessly.
A headline today (Oct. 3) read “Cubs’ Ross OK with Game 2 postponement.” I admit it, I haven’t followed the Cubs lately as much as I did during their World Series run, so I didn’t know straightaway that Game 2 had been postponed in their most recent series. I just read the headline and thought what fits. “Oh, I’m glad he’s not hurt.”
I thought “I’m OK with that” and similar “person OK with thing” expressions were just a passing fad. If they are, I wish they would pass more quickly and go away.
Whatever happened to the more logical “Is that OK with you?” — “thing OK with person” — for seeking or describing approval?
Maybe it started in restaurants: “Yes, my salad is OK with bleu cheese on it,” or “Yes, I’m OK if we sit there.” But even the second one is more logical as “It’s OK,” not “I’m OK.” (Maybe “I’m OK if you stop the Heimlich Maneuver, already!”)
The postponement in the headline example could not have expressed whether it was OK or not. Let’s keep the expression going in the correct direction! Even in the headline, “Game 2 postponement” fits just the same as the top deck (first line) of the headline as it did on the bottom, and using “Game 2 postponement OK with Cubs’ Ross” actually leaves room for the word “is.”
Grammar in headlines? No, that’s another battle altogether.
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Meet The Blogger
Margaret H. Laing
I moved to Chicago from the south suburbs in 1986. I have diverse interests, but I love writing about what I’m interested in. Whether it’s a personal interest or part of my career, the correct words to get the idea across are important to me. I love words and languages — French and Scottish words enrich my American English. My career has included years as a journalist and years working in museums, and the two phases were united by telling stories. I’m serious about words and stories. So here I am, ready to tell stories about words and their languages.
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