Important Is Sentence The of Order A

Here's a good one that I just excised from Wikipedia:

"Game show host [[Bob Barker]] is known for advising viewers of [[The Price is Right]] to help control the pet population, to have their pets spayed or neutered at the end of each episode."

My own personal dog would likely become exhausted being spayed at the end of each episode, not to mention the ongoing cost. But it would certainly give the vet something to do to keep him off the streets, committing random acts of veterinarianism.

We Know What They Mean, But--

Heard on the radio (often): "Thanks to Ron of the KCBS phone force, there's a tremendous backup on 101..." Gee, yeah, thanks a lot, Ron...

Lock Them Innocents Up

This one gave me pause: Are we not giving framed people tough enough sentences? If we're going to lock them up anyway, we might as well throw away the key so they can't get out to talk about it? (San Jose Mercury News, December 8, 2005.)

Or perhaps they're not talking about prison terms but about the language that attorneys use in the courtroom? Sentences such as "Your honor, we don't have another suspect, so could you please lock him up?" aren't tough enough; instead, sentences need to be more along the lines of, "You'd better lock this guy up, judge, or you're next, and believe me, we know how to frame people. So watch yerself"?

(Also see my small collection of similar examples showing Why Copy Editors Aren't Useless.)