A “squinting modifier” is just a misplaced modifier with a funnier name. (Admit it: It’s fun to say, “squinting.”) As with most misplaced modifiers, the best way to fix them is to move them closer to ...

For example, do a Google search for “misplaced modifiers” and “funny” and you may learn the following fact: “Nearly 600,000 men get a vasectomy in the United States each year.” ...

In fact, the culprit is none other than Misplaced Modifier. Disguised as a mild-mannered reporter for a large metropolitan newspaper, Misplaced stalks our city’s headlines, ...

But misplacing the modifier in this case was particularly embarrassing to the editor who wrote the headline, because sussing out misplaced modifiers is one of her strengths. "Oh boy," she wrote me ...

I didn’t wear glasses until I was 19. As an up-and-coming visionary word nerd, I had never thought I needed corrective lenses. Of course, I always fancied monocles, although I didn’t know how ...