I would love to have a discussion with the person(s) who think that having an autoplay video pop up and cover 40% of the article I’m trying to read is a good idea.
Shoot him an email. Maybe ask him why he's such an herb.
But completely agree. For anyone who hasn't followed what's happening to Gawker's corpse, this is worth a read:
https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-adults-in-the-room-183...
Note the pronunciation given for US and Canadian English, with the optional /h/: /(h)ɝb/
If your dialect pronounces it as /ɝb/ it is perfectly natural to say "an herb" (/æn ɝb/) and saying "a herb" (/eɪ ɝb/ or /ə ɝb/) with that pronunciation is incorrect.
I am familiar with the linguistic norms at play here, and if I come across an herb in a grassy meadow, I’ll happily say so. It’s specifically the collision of the dialectal “an” and a slang expression strictly pronounced with a “hard” h that got me. A person is never called an ‘erb, unless the individual speaking is themselves a total herb.
In any case, no offense intended to OP! It genuinely made me laugh. And none intended to you either, this exchange has been very HN in the best way.
I simply got a blog post that I read through from start to finish without anything else getting in the way.