Talk about disingenuous! Maryland Lottery and Gaming’s managing director of communications, Carole Gentry, says of her agency’s move away from air-powered numbered pingpong balls for Pick 3 and other games to computerized random number generators, “I don’t have the numbers, but it’s significant savings” (“Number’s up: Maryland Lottery will stop televising drawings and using marked balls Monday,” Dec. 16).
I call shenanigans on this one. If you don’t have the numbers, how do you know they’re significant? Sounds to me like you have the numbers all right but don’t care to divulge. Why? Because the savings are a drop in the bucket and there are other reasons for this change. Either that, or you really have no idea, but it sounds good to say “significant savings.”
I understand this isn’t a big deal, but it gripes me. Maybe I’ve become overly sensitized to doublespeak like this after years of cunning, artful and duplicitous speech from politicians. If so, it’s a sad commentary on the state of our culture.
— Walter Levy, Pikesville
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