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British urged to point out baffling signs
A national audit is to be made of the UK's vast collection of ungrammatical, misspelt, out of date and inexplicably mystifying public signs, using the general public as error spotters.
The situation has long been tackled by grammar vigilantes, particularly in West London, where many signs have hand painted apostrophes squeezed into their rightful places.
Beginning in Leeds, local authorities now aim to eradicate signs which point both ways, direct tourists into closed-off alleyways or towards long-dismantled attractions, or have apostrophes missing. A national audit is to be made of the UK's vast collection of ungrammatical, misspelt, out of date and inexplicably mystifying pu... more -
Mystery Solved, No Comma!
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin answers a very important question from Angela about the punctuation (or lack thereof) in their band name. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin answers a very important question from Angela about the punctuation (or lack thereof) in their b... more
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Diddy says " There isn't even any crackheads in Alaska."
Diddy says that Sarah Palin is a bad choice for Veep, he even suggested Michelle Obama as a better choice. ( Huh? Aren't they going to have a conflict of interest there?)
As he said: "Sarah you need to be down with the whole cabinet. You are not ready to be no vice president. What is the reality in Alaska? There isn't even any crackheads in Alaska. There isn't any black people, no crime. There isn't even any foreign policies in Alaska. You need to get versed on black policies. We are the future."
Well, I guess Diddy knows - doesn't he?
Diddy doesn't know diddly-squat about grammar, though... Diddy says that Sarah Palin is a bad choice for Veep, he even suggested Michelle Obama as a better choice. ( Huh? Aren't they go... more -
Typo vigilantes banned from national parks
When it comes to marking up historic signs, good grammar is a bad defense.
Two self-styled vigilantes against typos who defaced a more than 60-year-old, hand-painted sign at Grand Canyon National Park were sentenced to probation and banned from national parks for a year.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson pleaded guilty August 11 for the damage done March 28 at the park's Desert View Watchtower. The sign was made by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the architect who designed the rustic 1930s watchtower and other Grand Canyon-area landmarks.
Deck and Herson, both 28, toured the United States this spring, wiping out errors on government and private signs. They were interviewed by NPR and the Chicago Tribune, which called them "a pair of Kerouacs armed with Sharpies and erasers and righteous indignation."
An affidavit by National Park Service agent Christopher A. Smith said investigators learned of the vandalism from an Internet site operated by Deck on behalf of the Typo Eradication Advancement League.
Authorities said a diary written by Deck reported that while visiting the watchtower, he and Herson "discovered a hand-rendered sign inside that, I regret to report, contained a few errors."
The fiberboard sign has yellow lettering with a black background. Deck wrote that they used a marker to cover an erroneous apostrophe, put the apostrophe in its proper place with correction fluid and added a comma.
The misspelled word "emense" was not fixed, Deck wrote, because "I was reluctant to disfigure the sign any further. ... Still, I think I shall be haunted by that perversity, emense, in my train-whistle-blighted dreams tonight."
Deck and Herson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to vandalize government property.
They were sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park or modify any public signs. They were also ordered to pay $3,035 to repair the watchtower sign.
The TEAL Web site now has only this message: "Statement on the signage of our National Parks and public lands to come." When it comes to marking up historic signs, good grammar is a bad defense. ... more -
Grammar Police Busted by Real Police
PHOENIX - When it comes to marking up historic signs, good grammar is a bad defense.
Two self-styled vigilantes against typos who defaced a more than 60-year-old, hand-painted sign at Grand Canyon National Park were sentenced to probation and banned from national parks for a year. They had removed an extraneous apostrophe and added a comma to the sign.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson pleaded guilty Aug. 11 for the damage done March 28 at the park's Desert View Watchtower. The sign was made by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the architect who designed the rustic 1930s watchtower and other Grand Canyon-area landmarks.
Deck and Herson, both 28, toured the United States this spring, wiping out errors on government and private signs. They were interviewed by National Public Radio and the Chicago Tribune, which called them "a pair of Kerouacs armed with Sharpies and erasers and righteous indignation."
An affidavit by National Park Service agent Christopher A. Smith said investigators learned of the vandalism from an Internet site operated by Deck on behalf of the Typo Eradication Advancement League, or TEAL.
'Haunted' by errors
Authorities said a diary written by Deck reported that while visiting the watchtower, he and Herson "discovered a hand-rendered sign inside that, I regret to report, contained a few errors."
The fiberboard sign has yellow lettering with a black background and is several paragraphs long. Deck wrote that they used a marker to cover an erroneous apostrophe, put the apostrophe in its proper place with white-out and added a comma.
The misspelled word "emense" — rather than immense — was not fixed, Deck wrote, because "I was reluctant to disfigure the sign any further. ... Still, I think I shall be haunted by that perversity, emense, in my train-whistle-blighted dreams tonight."
Deck and Herson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to vandalize government property.
They were sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park or modify any public signs. They were also ordered to pay $3,035 to repair the watchtower sign.
The TEAL Web site now has only this message — "Statement on the signage of our National Parks and public lands to come" — without a period. PHOENIX - When it comes to marking up historic signs, good grammar is a bad defense. ... more -
Appalachian English: Speaking the Kentucky stereotype
Appalachian English flows through Kentucky's veins, and it is one of the most mocked American speech patterns. It is also one that many consider part of their rich cultural heritage.
But is mountain speech an aural indication of lesser worth?
That's what Jodelle Deem, a speech professor at the University of Kentucky, wants to know. How do Appalachian speech patterns affect employability in Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati?
Deem and graduate student Lisa Hill will use tapes of Appalachian and non-regional speech patterns to find out what health care managers think of the candidates.
Their hypothesis: Managers will perceive those who speak the standard English dialect as the most employable, and those who speak with an Appalachian accent and grammar as the least. Appalachian English flows through Kentucky's veins, and it is one of the most mocked American speech patterns. It is also one tha... more -
Facebook Goes Gender Specific
It always annoyed me a little that on Facebook my mini-feed would say, “Britny just updated their About Me,” but I never gave too much thought to it. Well, Facebook just announced that they’ve updated it to say either “his” or “her.” This is great for people who care about matching nouns with pronouns, but not so good for transgendered members of the Facebook community. Luckily, Facebook will allow people to manually opt out of the gender classification. “We have a lot of respect for these communities, which is why it will still be possible to remove gender entirely from your account,” said Facebook product manager Naomi Gleit. It’s nice to know they’re sensitive to this, isn’t it? It always annoyed me a little that on Facebook my mini-feed would say, “Britny just updated their About Me,” but I never gave too much... more
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Google Me baby
Have you 'Googled' Teyana Taylor yet?
Since I do everything that the pop musak in the mall tells me to, I came home and Googled up Teyana Taylor's new single, "Google Me" which implores everyone to end the debate once and for all via a web search.
Is she a celebrity, or is she not?
According to Teyana: "I'm a celebrity, go 'head and Google me."
Is this the easiest path to fame or what?
Also, if "Google" is going to be used as a verb (and repeated about 100 times in a 3 minute pop song!) can I just write a little lower case "g" at the beginning from now on? Have you 'Googled' Teyana Taylor yet? ... more -
Yo as a pronoun...gender-neutral solution or yet another slang fad?
Dr. Elaine Stotko from the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University happened upon an interesting trend amongst Baltimore high schoolers -- they've taken to using "yo" as a gender-neutral pronoun.
Sorry, that should've been, "...yo's taken to using 'yo' as a gender-neutral pronoun."
So far, Dr. Stotko has only noted this behavior happening in Baltimore (and perhaps Milwaukee), but she's looking to the vast sprawl of the Internet to see if it's surfacing elsewhere.
photo used with permission under the creative commons license. photo by jonsson: http://flickr.com/photos/karljonsson/ Dr. Elaine Stotko from the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University happened upon an interesting trend amongst Baltimore high s... more -
The "is-is" Epidemic
Steve's Grammatical Observations brings you a close examination of commonly overlooked grammatical blunders we commit on a daily basis. Preposterous!
Do you say "is-is"? Steve's Grammatical Observations brings you a close examination of commonly overlooked grammatical blunders we commit on a daily ... more -
Why apostrophes don?t compute
punctuation can be so difficult. http://www.killtheapostrophe.com/
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Grammar is for grown-ups too.
That's right. Just because we're not in grammar school anymore, doesn't mean that we should loosen our grasp on grammar. Because let's face it: bad grammar makes you look stupid. Especially when it's written out for everyone to see.
"These days, we tend to communicate via the keyboard as much as we do verbally. Often we're in a hurry, quickly dashing off emails with typos, grammatical shortcuts (I'm being kind here), and that breezy, e.e. cummings, no-caps look."
Sound familiar? Take a look at this list of common mistakes and see where you're stumbling.
because it's important to bee professoinal irregardless of whether your workin or not That's right. Just because we're not in grammar school anymore, doesn't mean that we should loosen our grasp on grammar... more -
Antidisestablishmentarianism
good word...great teacher
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Fun Sites for "Wasting" Time at "Work"
What? There are unnecessary quotation marks in the title? Better report this to the good people over at The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks! http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com)
check out the ultimate in punctuation abuse fighting at www.apostropheabuse.com. It's sad yet also amusing that somewhere out there stands a tombstone that says, "MOM - Alway's there for us." What? There are unnecessary quotation marks in the title? Better report this to the good people over at The "Blog" of "... more -
Labtop is Not a Word
Commonly misused words for the commonly confused english-speaker.
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A Whole Nother Website
Thank you. No, really. Thank you.
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Grammar
