Elements of no style?

[Orrex]

Ignoring for a moment the Happy Gilmore-esque elements of this story, the opening sentence really bugs me:

A man who lost his ball in a golf course pond nearly lost a limb when a nearly 11-foot alligator latched on to his arm and pulled him in the water, authorities said.

I guess the key here is "nearly."

Who nearly writes this crap? And why does the copy editor still nearly have job?

[Left Is Write]

1. It was a near miss.

[Adsos Letter]

2. .......

...:spray:... I nearly ruined my keyboard reading your reply.

[trof]

3. nearly nearly reminds me of Nicely Nicely Johnson.

Stubby Kaye played the character in Guys and Dolls.

[HEyHEY]

4. Dude, do NOT get me started

Where I work we vett everything and do a good job of getting rid of such sentences. However, our competition... are TERRIBLE. They have stupid phrases like that all the time, and use cliches till the end of the day.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Oh, man, if there's one thing I hate it's cliches. I've said it a million times.

If I had a nickel for every cliche I've been forced to endure...

[HEyHEY]

8. badoom cha!

[AlCzervik]

5. on cnn a few years ago the news anchor referred to Zarqawi as--"The almost captured terrorist"

wtf?

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. That jackoff's editor should be flogged