Hardly a day goes by without a reader submitting something strange from the Canberra Times website.
Normally we refrain. But this morning provides two headlines which really need looking at:
— L.A burns to the ground
— ‘Perfect storm’ as fires raze California
The State of California has been ‘razed’? My dictionary defines raze as to “completely destroy”. 36,553,215 people completely destroyed?
The whole city of Los Angeles burned “to the ground”?
I know we’re prone to hyperbole ourselves here. But really guys, get a grip. Maybe a thousand houses is a tragedy to be sure and great pictures no doubt. But it’s not the complete devastation of one of the world’s biggest economies.