I’ve been accused of being humorless. But just for the record, this is okay with me. I’m not going to freak about dialect, when it makes sense. Heck, I just started a sentence with “but” two sentences back. I am not that rigid. And when Dunkin’ Donuts does this, consistent with an ongoing marketing campaign, I have no objections to raise at all.
(Also? The egg white flatbreads are delicious.)
…it’s about to get rough around here.
Or so says this article, anyway.
… while blunders and bloopers have ever exasperated the spelling snobs and grammar grunions of the world, our recent woes — housing foreclosures, massive layoffs, rising debt and war — may be ratcheting up the pressure some feel to seize control of something (anything!), even if it’s just a properly placed comma.
Rock on! Get angry, and submit stuff!
Received today — some info redacted:
From: N___ M___ Sent: Thu 1/08/09 1:05 PM To: me Alden,
Thank you very much for informing us of the “apostrophe abuse” on the billboard at Memorial. We have actually been in the process of getting this typo corrected. In appreciation for your concern I would like to send you a shirt, cap or mug.If you prefer a shirt please provide me with your size.
Provide me with your address or you can pick it up from either our main office or from the property office as indicated on the billboard. Just let me know your choice.
Again thank you for your concern,
—————————————————————————–
N___ M___
Director of Marketing and Communications
The often-funny Stuff White People Like has a great entry today: “White Problems – Typos on Menus.” Best line:
It is the duty of every white person to correct typos. It is worth the risk of banishment to deliver proper grammar to those who need it.
I can only take issue with the implication that grammar duties are exclusively white. It is everybody’s duty, y’all. Grammar knows no race.
And now, ladies and germs, a rarely-seen-in-the-wild gem: a perfectly correct* sign that has been edited by a wanna-be honorary RPB member! Because honestly, the only thing better than grammatical mistakes is sanctimonious and erroneous grammatical correction!
*Yes, okay, we can have a little debate about whether we need a hyphen in “well-stocked.” But there’s no argument to be made for the comma except that somebody wants to make me poke my eyes out with a spork.
Driving around the country fixing errors of all sorts? And blogging about them? Yes please! These people are awesome. I am adding the website and blog of the “Typo Hunt across America” to the blogroll over on the right there.
And here is the link to the BBC video Debbie recommended to me about these valiant, brave souls.
Perhaps I’m supposing that the commas-as-ellipsis is the attempt of a frustrated fellow punctuation-ophile who wants to right the wrongs of missing commas all over the world, but for some reason, this one brings me joy.
P.S. Extra points: is there a word for “punctuation-ophile”? A quick google doesn’t turn one up.
I can only hope that the damage to this poster was wrought by a similarly-enraged fan of the apostrophe.
I have been bugged by this for weeks, since I started commuting every day on Atlanta’s charming underground system. Then some friends and I happened upon a train that had clearly also transported a fellow sufferer.
To our collective relief, we discovered on a second train that somebody had already convinced the Powers That Be to address the issue.
Now if they could just keep the trains from breaking down…
This is really the picture that started it all. I saw this at a local store about two weeks ago and was warmed by the knowledge that somewhere out there was another soul as tormented by the random assembly of letters into “words” (and, similarly, the random assembly of words into “sentences”) as I am.
