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Newspaper Decides Noem Should Hyphenate

Democratic candidate for governor Billie Sutton gets a nice write-up from AP this weekend. Rather than dwelling on Sutton’s persistent tack right with his anti-union, anti-choice record (“But Sutton did vote,” James Nord reminds us, “for a 20-week abortion ban in 2016, and his campaign notes his support this year for a resolution endorsing South Dakota’s right-to-work status”), let’s take a Sunday grammar diversion and revel in the decision of either the AP Style Guide or the Aberdeen American News that Republican gubernatorial candidate Kristi Noem’s last name is properly pronounced as two distinct syllables:

Aberdeen American News, 2018.08.18, p. 7A.
Aberdeen American News, 2018.08.18, p. 7A.

That’s Kristi Noem, hyphenated. Not Kristi Arnold-Noem—heavens forfend, such modernism!—but Kristi No-Em… as in… what?

  • …how Kristi responds to invitations to debate: “No… um…”?
  • …how we voters should assess the usefulness of Kristi’s efforts in Congress: “We’ll know ’em by their fruits… and those fruits are all rotten”?
  • …what South Dakota government would like under a Governor No-EM: “No M… No Meaty Policy, No Mindfulness, No Merit, No Major Accomplishments”?
  • …What South Dakota voters should say to Kristi’s bid for governor: “No ‘m!” as in “No ma’am”?

Take your pick, or make your own. But per AP/AAN, it’s Kristi NO-EM, two syllables.

11 Comments

  1. Kristi Quaintance

    Voting for Kristi? No-emma gonna pass. I’m voting for Billie.

  2. Robin Friday

    No Noem fan here, BUT: just because both syllables are pronounced orally does not require that it should be hyphenated in writing.

  3. jerry

    NOem, should be just as we need vote NO to NOem. There, fixed it.

  4. grudznick

    Today you are a nit-picky, hyper-critical fellow indeed, Mr. H. Must be a campaign tactic…Mr. PP’s fancy whittling, a newspaper’s hyphen…figuring all those high-brows in district 3 go for that, I assume.

  5. grudznick

    My addled noggin wonders if nit-picky and hyper-critical are properly hyphenated, but as I am not an Aberdeenite and am an anti-elite, I shall likely never know. I am resigned to whittle away in blissful ignorance.

  6. Debbo

    I am going for this one:

    “No Meaty Policy, No Mindfulness, No Merit, No Major Accomplishments”

  7. …or maybe No-Empathy?
    …No-Emcees needed because she keeps chickening out of debates?
    …No-Employment for young people in South Dakota since Trump’s tariffs will crash the farm economy?

  8. AberdeenPerson

    HAHA! That’s interesting. That paper probably uses Adobe InDesign, which auto-hyphenates things and it can be missed due to staffing issues, as well as general low employee morale. I love your spin on it though!

  9. Darrell Solberg

    Are they going to give NOem a pass on debates? She is good at avoiding questions, not answering question but diverting/ignoring, not getting any work done!!! But she is excellent with avoidance, repub talking points, and following the leader at every turn!!

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