Buffalo wings—WITH A CAPITAL ‘B’!

AP Stylebook responds to Buffalo wing tweet

blog by S.J. Velasquez • March 19, 2012 @ 3:24pm

At Buffalo.com, we try to keep up with all things “Buffalo” in the news, which is why it’s not uncommon to find members of our team googling “Buffalo” every morning.

We come across news stories about our city, bison, buffalo mozzarella, other places named Buffalo and references to Buffalo wings—although it’s often written as “buffalo wings,” which, of course, is wrong.

As a former newspaper copy editor, I cringe whenever I see that lower-case “b” in a news story, because it tells me that writer and/or editor doesn’t realize that the Buffalo wing is named after our city, the home of the original Buffalo wing. The wings aren’t named after the animal. Didn’t Jessica Simpson clear that up for us years ago? Even NPR got it wrong today. COME ON.

Well, the AP Stylebook gods have spoken, confirming via Twitter what has already been established by AP editors:

Buffalodotcom AP question

AP Stylebook twitter response

TAGGED: ap style, ap stylebook, buffalo style, buffalo wings, chicken wings, wings

S.J. Velasquez

Comments

shepard.stacey March 22, 2012 @ 4:01pm

Elle magazine has an article on Jessica Simpson this month in which they mention her famous wings goof and they wrote it as “buffalo wings.” Come on! It’s a print version of Simpson’s same mistake!
S.J. Velasquez March 23, 2012 @ 11:46am

Elle Magazine has disgraced professional journalism.