The Best

The Best – and Worst – of Everything

If you’ve done any Internet-based searches for practically any product, good, or service, you may have noticed at least one recurring theme:

Best.

In an email today, I found the following:

• The 100 Best Movies on Netflix (June 2021)
• The 30 Best Horror TV Shows on Netflix
• The Best Sitcoms on Netflix Right Now (June 2021)
• The 35 Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now
• The 20 Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix (June 2021)
• The Best Comedies on Netflix Right Now (June 2021)
• The 7 Best Fantasy Movies on Netflix
• The Trailer Park: The Best New Movie Trailers of the
• The 60 Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now (2021)
• The 10 Best Movies in Theaters Right Now
• The Best Sci-Fi Movies on Amazon Prime (2021)

I thought that I would vomit after reading that garbage, because it was so nauseating.

The best

Slap the word “best” into the headline, and POOF! “Suddenly,” it’s the ultimate, never-to-be challenged, or surpassed. And who, or what group established any “standards” by which the items were compared to establish what is “best,” or “worst”?

And what are the qualifications of the writers to establish what thing is “best,” or not?

It’s so just because they say so.

Again, an utter failure.

And then, when it comes to “news,” or what is often allegedly passed off as “news,” there are at least 2, or 3, other nuisances and scourges of reporting accuracy and clarity:

1.) _?(insert number)?_ Things to Know
examples:
• 5 Things We Learned From Anthony Fauci’s Emails
• The Top 10 Things Everyone Needs To Know In Life
• 41 Things You Need To Know Right Now, For No Reason In Particular.
• 5 Things To Know For May 27: San Jose, Covid-19, Policing, China, Climate
• 17 Important Things to Know About Costa Rica Before You Go
• Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
• Five Things To Know About Facebook’s Trump Decision
• Greater Philadelphia Restaurant And Tourism News: 7 Things To Know To Start Your Weekend

2.) Failure to identify people properly – instead writing their name only, and failing to cite their affiliation in expertise associated with the article/story:
For example, failure to title a person, such as by writing Dr. if a person has a medical degree (MD/DO) or a terminal degree (PhD, EdD, etc.), -and- by simultaneous failure to identify their title within the department or agency with which they’re affiliated.

For example, Dr. Doc Tor, DO, Chief of Virology Investigation Department, University of Neverland, in Make-Believeville, Statehood, or Dr. Well Said, PhD, Dean, School of Hard Knocks, University of Life, Wherever, State of Being.

Or as “The Reverend” So-and-So, Pastor of Really Big Church, or Mr. -or- Mrs. Low Life, Deacon(ess) at Some Little Church, or Blipity Blab, Director, (of) An Important Department, or Whet Stone, former Assistant Deputy Director of the Imaginary Agency, etc.

The principle applies also to individuals whom are progressing toward/working upon a terminal degree, e.g., cite as “a doctoral student working toward the PhD (or other terminal degree), or Dr. Cool Water, MD, Chief Resident, who is in her 3rd year of residency in pediatric dermatology, or Dr. Head Honcho, DO,  who has worked in underpants his entire career.

3.) States’ abbreviations: The Associated Press Stylebook – considered by some as the “bible” of news reporting writing style for online and/or print production – does not use the near-universal simple U.S. Postal Service two-letter state abbreviation, and instead, has a seriously inconsistent and non-uniform method which is wretchedly substandard, and grievously out-of-date. Just examine this horrible list to see for yourself how atrocious it is.

States’ Abbreviations
(According to the Associated Press)

State Name	AP Abbreviation	USPS Abbreviation
Alabama	Ala.	AL
Arizona	Ariz.	AZ
Arkansas	Ark.	AR
California	Calif.	CA
Colorado	Colo.	CO
Connecticut	Conn.	CT
Delaware	Del.	DE
Florida	Fla.	FL
Georgia	Ga.	GA
Illinois	Ill.	IL
Indiana	Ind.	IN
Kansas	Kan.	KS
Kentucky	Ky.	KY
Louisiana	La.	LA
Maryland	Md.	MD
Massachusetts	Mass.	MA
Michigan	Mich.	MI
Mississippi	Miss.	MS
Montana	Mont.	MT
Nebraska	Neb.	NE
Nevada	Nev.	NV
New Hampshire	N.H.	NH
New Jersey	N.J.	NJ
New Mexico	N.M.	NM
New York	N.Y.	NY
Noth Carolina	N.C.	NC
North Dakota	N.D.	ND
Oklahoma	Okla.	OK
Oregon	Ore.	OR
Pennsylvania	Pa.	PA
Rhode Island	R.I.	RI
South Carolina	S.C.	SC
Tennessee	Tenn.	TN
Vermont	Vt.	VT
Virginia	Va.	VA
Washington	Wash.	WA
West Virginia	W.Va.	WV
Wisconsin	Wis.	WI
Wyoming	Wyo.	WY
States NOT Abbreviated by AP
Alaska		AK
Hawaii		HI
Idaho		ID
Maine		ME
Ohio		OH
Texas		TX
Utah		UT
District of Columbia		DC

If there is any type of “consistency” to the list for the AP’s official “style,” it is INCONSISTENCY.

Some states have two-letter abbreviations – albeit with periods in between the letters, somewhat similar to the USPS official abbreviation – Ga. for Georgia, La. for Louisiana, N.J. for New Jersey, N.C. for North Carolina, N.D. fo North Dakota, etc. – while yet others have 3, or 4 letter abbreviations – such as Ala. for Alabama, and Ore. for Oregon, and Miss. for Mississippi, and Wash. for Washington – and yet some have NO abbreviations – Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Texas, etc.

The best