Inaugural not “First Annual”, You Commies.

With all the talk about the upcom­ing Cleve­land Inge­nu­ity Fes­ti­val, I’ve had plen­ty of expo­sure to my great­est gram­mar pet peeve. I would­n’t even have this almost psy­cho­path­ic hatred of this com­mon mis­take if it weren’t for my high school com­mu­ni­ca­tions and jour­nal­ism teacher, Mr. Glowac­ki.

There is no such thing as FIRST ANNUAL.

The word you want is INAUGURAL.

This is not the FIRST ANNUAL Cleve­land Inge­nu­ity Fes­ti­val. What if it does­n’t hap­pen next year? Won’t be annu­al then, will it? It should be the INAUGURAL Cleve­land Inge­nu­ity Fes­ti­val.

Local media cul­prits:
Cool Cleve­land
WCPN
Cleve­land Free Times [No online evi­dence, at least until they get some of the more recent issues up]

Local Media Heros
WMJI
WMVX
[is it just me or do all those radio sites look the bloody same?]
Cleve­land Jew­ish News

Cleveland.com and WGAR don’t say inau­gur­al or “first annu­al” and it does­n’t appear that any of the TV sta­tions are cov­er­ing it.