"Chris" wrote in message news:cri2kh$s47

It bugs me, too. Most ramps are concrete, not tar-macadam, but the
newsies
think that saying tarmac makes them sound knowledgeable.

Anybody ever bothered to correct the newsies? This would be interesting to
most of them.
For example, editors reject terms like "Dumpster" and "Velcro." Meanwhile,
Thermos is so old that it's acceptable to call any such container a thermos,
just as Webster's Dictionary can be published by anybody. It may also be
acceptable to call any paved surface upon which aircraft operate a "tarmac,"
and/or this acceptability in print may vary from country to country.

Probably not worth getting all het up about. If they called the surface
pavement, or ashphalt, they'd likely get a ration of crap from hotheaded
aviators telling them the term is "tarmac." (Also, by way of trivia, cement
is what is used to make concrete. A sidewalk is concrete, not cement, but
that's been misused into pointlessness by the average American just as the
term "nauseous" has.)

Meanwhile, most critics of the media don't know the proper useage of an
apostrophe or comma. And, keep your eye on pilots' misuse of the word
"hanger." (It's "hangar.")

-c