Saturday, August 27, 2016

Foul Called on The Economist's Mention of Ultimate Frisbee

Back in August 2016, The Economist published an article about how tech leaders stayed fit. Mentioned was Sergey Brin who known as an enthusiastic ultimate player. The ultimate reference from the article:"Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, pushes his body to the limits in a variety of sports: skydiving, rollerblading, roller hockey, "ultimate Frisbee" and high-flying trapeze."

The double quotation marks used with the words "ultimate Frisbee" did not sit well with Andrew Work, Editor-in-chief of Harbour Times (Hong Kong).  So, he wrote this matter-of-fact Letter to the Editor which The Economist published on August 27th.

Work's Letter to the Editor titled "Stamina a requirement" reads:
Ultimate Frisbee is a real thing, not an oddity requiring quotes around it as if it were a strange metaphor of a sport (Schumpeter, August 13th). It is recognised by the International Olympic Committee. The World Flying Disc Federation manages global tournaments and enforces the World Anti-Doping Agency's regime. Some in the sport cautiously avoid the trademarked Frisbee name and are pushing for the sport to be called Ultimate. Indeed, the disc officially used is not that of Frisbee's trademark owner, Wham-O, but is typically a Discraft manufactured disc. It may be time to update your style guide to include this magnificent sport. It is definitely time to surrender the quotes. It truly is Ultimate.




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