Another beautiful day. Bright sun, and it got up to about 70 in the afternoon, I think, though it was much cooler by the time I took my afternoon walk, which has suddenly become an evening walk.

The wind’s blustery, which is too bad, because it means the trees that turn their leaves early are shedding them now. So when the great crescendo of the visual chorus that is autumn arrives at last, they’ll have no “voices” left. The perfect weather for fall is still and dry for a couple months.

Not that I’ve got any business complaining about high winds, considering what’s going on in southern California.

Today I want to strike a blow for precision in language. I want to smash, and smash vengefully, a common error that seems to be growing more and more common.

How often these days do we read a sentence like this: “In lieu of the senator’s statement, advocacy groups organized a massive letter-writing campaign”?

This is bad. Don’t do this anymore.

What the writer meant to say was, “In view of the senator’s statement…”



“In lieu of” and “in view of” are not the same thing.

The phrase, “In lieu of” is defined by Merriam-Webster this way: “in the place of; instead of.”

If someone says, “During the war, we ate margarine in lieu of butter,” he’s using the words properly.

Why do people make this mistake?

Because they’re trying to use a fancy, frenchified word in lieu of a perfectly good, easily understood English one.

When in doubt, use the simple word. When not in doubt, the simple word is still usually the best bet.

Now read this post again. Read it over and over until you understand it.

The world will be happier for it.

Or at least I will.