Sophisticated El Paso Times food blogger Felipa Solis recently traveled to New York, where she learned a new noun: culinary.

Gushes Solis, “So, while there, I had to indulge in the culinary of the city,” “In any event, the culinary was all amazing…,” and “Now, time to focus on the culinary of our own hometown.”

Never mind the spacing problems (duly noted by our own Milton Waddams, who notices that Solis seems to resist inserting a space or two after a period. That’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is to point out, to the pointy-headed people on point at the El Paso Times editorial desk, that “culinary” is either an adjective or, in variation, an adverb, but never a noun.

Now see here:
culinary |ˈkələˌnerē; ˈkyoōlə-|
adjective
of or for cooking : culinary skills | savor the culinary delights of the region.
DERIVATIVES
culinarily
adverb
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin culinarius, from culina ‘kitchen.’

And one more thing, esteemed spelling & grammar editorial mavens at our local rag of record: “in tact” is a word, not two.

P.S. Good Lordy. They just keep on coming: That would be “ensure”, not “insure,” dear editors. I certainly don’t need State Farm to “insure” my tomatoes.

You might need insurance against embarrassing speeling mistakes.

Yes, we did that on porpoise.

Under the Communities section of today’s El Paso Times, we see this dramatic headline: “To Report Problems.” But the article covers local events.

Are all events in El Paso problematic?

Former North Carolina senator Jesse Helms died Friday. Helms was a rambunctious, pugnacious and extraordinarily conservative American. He was not, as CNN reports, an icon for conservatives. His ideas on affirmative action, women’s rights and AIDS were offensive to the cultural norm. On the other hand, he was all for withholding funds for the UN.

…

Naaah, even that’s not good enough to weigh Heaven’s scales in his favor. Though the teary meeting with Bono, in which he was preached to by a rock star like a Baptist minister to a bucktooth moonshining whoring redneck, does help.

This kid is learning that you can’t sell your vote until after you get elected. Heck, even El Paso politicians know that.

Seems like Obama needs to get better letter-writing staffers, in order to stop ignorant tree-chopping attacks like this one on the Defense Department.