A nice point of usage

QueensGuy's culinary inklings (dig the orange, BTW) contains this gem:

It praised the crab cake at Chops restaurant in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., but said the meal there over all “was expensive and disappointing, from the soggy and sour chopped salad to a miserably tough and fatty strip steak.”

"Over all": at first I thought it was an error, and it probably is, depending on what the reviewer was trying to say. But I admit I don't have my AP Stylebook handy or my Fowler's, or even E.B. White, and the only Safire nearby has to do with politics. Any way, if the stinkin' libeler meant, "over all," I salute him. (Now to wonder: Did I really mean "any way" or should I correct it . . . )

QueensGuy replies: Admit it, you only brought this up to shame me for my grammatical error; "over all" was the Times' usage, not the reviewer's. "There's [sic] good reasons," indeed. And thanks, the orange is Mets (inherited from Giants) livery orange. I first tried Mets (inherited from Dodgers) livery blue, but it just looked like a hyperlink. (Now to wonder: am I allowed to use "Christendom" without a British accent? Better ask Madonna.)

Columbus Guy says: It ought to be painfully obvious that I don't know grammar; I'm only amused and confused by it. (And I did consider the distinction between the Times's usage (their stylebook calls for Times's) and the reviewers', but it purports to be an indirect quote (a mixed direct and indirect, for you persnickety's) and so I decided to take refuge in holding them to a high standard of accuracy.)

YOu see why lawyers are so expensive and never get anything done (until the money runs out, when thihngs happen quickly)?