{"id":5410,"date":"2015-01-20T13:16:23","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T13:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=5410"},"modified":"2015-01-20T13:25:36","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T13:25:36","slug":"the-price-of-petrol-an-object-of-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=5410","title":{"rendered":"The price of petrol – an object of worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"imageThere’s been a lot of coverage in the media recently on the falling price of crude oil – and consequently of petroleum products – but it is questionable whether any other coverage has attained the level of religious fervour exhibited by the Bristol Post, an organ not normally renowned for its piety.<\/p>\n

Yesterday’s Post featured a report<\/a> with the headline Unleaded petrol drops below £1 in Swindon – but when will Bristol see the hallowed price?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, that’s right – hallowed.<\/p>\n

According to Collins English Dictionary, the adjective hallowed<\/em> has the following meanings<\/a>:<\/p>\n

1. set apart as sacred
\n2. consecrated or holy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nowhere else have I encountered the price of petrol being referred to as being set apart as sacred<\/em>, let alone consecrated or holy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Collins also adds helpfully that hallowed<\/em> is used to describe something that is respected and admired, usually because it is old, important, or has a good reputation.<\/p>\n

I hardly think any of the adjectives so helpfully added by Collins could be applied – even in the broadest sense – to the price of petrol in the West Country.<\/p>\n

Could it be that the unnamed journalist responsible for the piece is ignorant of the meaning of hallowed?<\/p>\n

Quite possibly.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the Bristol Post is well known locally for its unquestioning championing of the motorist and demonisation of cyclists, not to mention its barely concealed opposition to Bristol Mayor George Ferguson’s plans for residents’ parking zones<\/a>. That being so, perhaps Post “journalists<\/em>” do worship piously at the pumps every time they fill up. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been a lot of coverage in the media recently on the falling price of crude oil – and consequently of petroleum products – but it is questionable whether any other coverage has attained the level of religious fervour exhibited by the Bristol Post, an organ not normally renowned for its piety. Yesterday’s Post featured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3,32],"tags":[40,36,16,22,33],"class_list":["post-5410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-media","tag-bristol","tag-comment","tag-english-usage","tag-language","tag-media-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5410"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5418,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions\/5418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}