Grammar Moses: Now with sex levels of spiciness!

I apologize for holding onto this information past the point in which you could take advantage of it, but it came over the transom after I put last weekend's column to bed.

I received a "news" release from a downtown PR firm regarding National Fried Chicken Day, which was July 6.

I'm sorry, but every day is fried chicken day - in my dreams, at least.

Here is a possible explanation for why fried chicken day is so amazing, from the news release: "(So-and-so) and his crew bring their Nashville Hot Chicken with sex levels of spiciness to enjoy."

Yeah, I read that twice, too. Is this an example of subliminal advertising? Is the pleasure of eating this spicy chicken tantamount to that derived from sex?

I'm not sure. I haven't tried this restaurant's chicken. But I plan to.

I spoke to the PR person eventually and, as I suspected, it was a typo.

But it was a typo that accomplished what any news release is meant to do: Get people to talk about it.

Troop movements

Rick Horndasch saw this headline in his local newspaper (not ours): "Trump: I'll veto defense bill to keep Confederate base names."

"This appears to have two possible meanings: either the veto seeks to maintain the current base names or the defense bill seeks to maintain the current base names, and Trump opposes that bill," Rick wrote.

"Is there a better way to express the headline to make clearer the veto would support retention of the long-standing base names, in opposition to the defense bill?"

That's an easy one, Rick: "Trump: I'll veto defense bill that drops Confederate base names."

Rick reminded me that I never responded to his inquiry about how "troop" can be either a collective noun or an individual noun.

I apologized to him and I'll apologize to the rest of you who have not heard back from me on your questions. Some weeks I get more mail than I can shake a pica pole at.

My response: You would never say "a troop" had died. But you would say "one of the troops" had died.

You might also say "six troops had died," but the reference is to the group of "troops."

So while "soldier " can identify an individual - just as sailor, Marine and airman can - "troop" works only for a member of a collective or the collective itself. The language is filled with ambiguities, and this is one.

What's up with that?

I received another correspondence from a public relations person pitching a story about, well, improving oneself.

"I wanted to see if you would be interested in expert insights from (so-and-so) on how now is the time for upskilling and how people find new paths to high-growth roles in health care, even if they are changing industries."

Up what?

Certain that I had happened upon another non-word, I quickly turned to Google's handy Ngram Viewer, only to learn that "upskilling" has been used in business circles since the late 1970s. Yes, it exists in real dictionaries, too.

Upsy-daisy!

Learning a new word doesn't mean I have any plans to add it to my vocabulary (save for today's column, that is.)

Colleague Susan Sarkauskas received the same pitch.

"I'm upchucking over 'upskilling,'" was her response.

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.