McGillivray Balances, Aligns Wheels; Braun and Bogren Mend Zazu's Petals.

At the top of the Dec/Jan column came a cavil about vehicle wheels that appear to rotate backward when shown on film: How come the special-effects wizards haven't pounced on this distraction? Well, an admirable response has come smoking out of the pits over on King Street West, M5H 1J9, which is Toronto country.

"[I] posed the question to Fred and Stephanie Marriott, publishers of Classic Camera Magazine. Here is Stephanie's explanation:

"'Films for TV are shot at 25 frames per second; that's 25 separate pictures each second. Imagine 25 pictures of a slow-moving cart in which one revolution of the wheels takes one second. Paint one spoke of the wheel a different colour in your mind. In each frame of the sequence the painted spoke has advanced a little way and although you don't actually see the motion from one frame to another, your mind puts it in. If the cart is moving more quickly, however, then your painted spoke moves a longer way between frames; if it moves almost a complete revolution, but not quite, your brain fills in the motion in the reverse direction. If none of the spokes are painted so they all look the same, this happens sooner, as you cannot differentiate between spokes. I hope this makes sense.'"

Somehow I knew that my brain would be part of this problem. I thank Ms. Marriott for her kind response, and IABC pro Glenn McGillivray, who is head of corporate communication for Swiss Reinsurance Company Canada, for brokering this bespoke response.

* Most of us are familiar with jargon noun blow-in, for "an advertisement or other supplement which is inserted into a larger publication by a blast of air" (Barnhart Dictionary Companion, Winter 2000, Merriam-Webster). Now Barnhart offers us a new pair of bookend nouns for the same shelf: Onsert, called Standard, is defined as "an extra publication bundled with another magazine, newspaper, journal, catalog or the like, especially one that is affixed to the cover." Also spelled on-sert; a second definition is "something added to the outside of something else." The other bookend is undersert, also called Standard, which the Barnhart Quarterly of New Words says means an extra publication, such as an advertisement or other supplement, added to another larger publication, such as a newspaper, journal, catalog, etc., by placing it on the back [of] or under the other publication."

The column mentioned above, I must note, presented a brief review of Merriam-Webster's new dictionary of allusions, which concludes with a delightful explication of Zuzu's petals. The phrase, which derives from Frank Capra's 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life," signifies "restored contact with reality[ldots](it is) a symbol of the real, normal world." Alas, it was printed Zazu's Petals, under the expert guidance of your columnist (perhaps that should read calumnist). But the need for reparation -- Zuzu's, not Zazu's; petals, no cap -- did not escape the IABC eyes of David Braun, St. Anthony's Medical Center, St. Louis, or Rick Bogren, assistant professor/news and public relations, LSU AgCenter. My thanks to both for their admonitory e-mails.

*___ Dependable correspondent Much, the editor at the Center for Advanced Study, e-mails "Anthony Dias Blue's column on red wines in the San Jose Mercury included a howler to be cherished: 'You can generally find bottles that will be imminently drinkable on purchase.

"Now I don't doubt that drinking may be imminent, but I'm sure Blue meant 'eminently'."

Makes one wonder whether Blue might refer to a cardinal as His Imminence. Thanks, KM.

*___ In a page B1 piece on 2/22/2K, Street Journal reports on marketing practices at Abercrombie & Fitch: "Its quarterly catalog and magazine routinely runs fleshy photos of frat boys and co-eds in compromising poses."

According to Webster's New World College Dict. (4th ed,) fleshy means "1 having much flesh; fat; plump 2 like or of flesh 3 having a firm pulp, as some fruits." At fleshly the book says "1 of the body and its nature; corporeal. 2 fond of bodily pleasures; sensual." Some linguistic cross-dressing may be observed in other publications, but so long as the distinctions exist, why not preserve them?

* A Reuters item datelined Hong Kong reported recently that a 500-lb. American-made bomb dating to World War II had been dug up "at a sewage construction site in Jordan."

While the difference between sewage and sewerage is not vitally important, your writing will be more precise if you know that sewage is the refuse conveyed through sewers, and that sewerage means either the removal of sewage or the system of removal.

*___ Will you edit this excerpt from Globe lede?

"For a long interval we apprised each other, the birds and I. Then with a chorus of caws, the crows leapt from their perches, wheeled in the steely air and flew away."

Like the curate's egg, parts of this are very good: Witness the fine alliteration at the top of the second sentence, the excellent assonance in wheeled and steely. But apprised fails. To apprise is simply to tell; here the context demands appraise, which means to put a value on.

Alden Wood, APR, lecturer on editorial procedures at Simmons College, Boston, Mass., writes and lectures on language usage. He is a retired insurance industry vice president of advertising and public relations. His e-dress is [e-mail].