Weird Al gave us a song, and now Red Rocket Farm has given us… an official piece of art! Hey, if states can have Official Everythings, so can we.
Click through to play on RRF’s Tumblr, or check them out at Red Rocket Farm. (And if you want to laugh until you pee, read Jason’s No One Wins In a Parrot War.)
Reporter #1 is finding kindred spirits for RPB recruitment.
I expect better of the apostrophe-friendly Wegmans!
Thanks to Davery, who spotted this and knew we needed to see it.
(Click image for link to original location!)
The bad news is: this exists in the world. The good news is: so do RPB allies!
Thanks for sharing the disaster and the optimism, Michael!
Eric A. found this at Carnegie Mellon and kindly thought of RPB.
See, I’m okay with abbreviations on Twitter.* They’re kind of necessary.** So I can understand a little abbreviation liberty in media about Twitter.
But I really, really don’t like “fav” as an abbreviation for “favorite.” I get it, but I also like the laws of standard phonics, and “fav” is pronounced to rhyme with “have.” That abbreviation needs an “e,” and fast, or my eyes will start to bleed.
…or they would have done! If it weren’t for our kindred spirit on the loose in the area. Of course this person seems to be even more of a purist than I am. But hey, I’ll take what I can get.
My lurker-friend Des sent this to me. I’m usually hesitant to post links to other blogs, because obviously One Blog Shall Rule Them All etc. But in perusing this one I noticed something so fascinating I couldn’t help myself. So I’m going to try to do this with as much internet etiquette as I can.
The image, on my server for posterity, but linking to its original (as far as I can determine) location:
Everywhere I can find this on the internet, there follows a bemused conversation about whether this is irony. I think it must be. I don’t want to live in a world where it isn’t, honestly. So that’s not the interesting part.
The interesting part is a comment from a guy named Dave, which goes like this:
I think you’ll find that is actually correct, as it’s a possessive thing. If you were to read it as an “it is” abbreviation, it makes no sense. “Great taste on it is way”….Huh?
For those of us on this side of the apostrophe wall, this is a fascinating glimpse at an actual attempt at logic. I’ve always wondered if people just stand there and think “Eh, it looks prettier with/without the apostrophe, let’s just do that.” Or if they even think about it at all. Here we have a gentleman (presumably) who is attempting to make a logical argument about his completely wrong belief that “it’s” is appropriate here. I think I love it.
So thanks, Des!
GrammarTroika Sister #1 says:
Okay, so the $26.99 belongs to Rose, and the $19.99 to Dahlia, but how much do the roses and dahlias cost?
True exchange at the nursery where these photos were snapped:
Husband: what are you doiii… (Trails off and sighs resignedly) You’re taking pictures of grammar errors again, aren’t you? (Shakes head and begins walking away from me)
Me: (mock shouting after him) it is my civic duty to maintain the laws of good grammar. I’m practically a superhero, ya know!
You’re a superhero in my book every day of the week, GTS#1!
I don’t get very many opportunities to prove this, but I’m always willing to accept and publish a (well-written) mea culpa after a post here.
For example.
And it seems to be true. Check out the before-and-after at the Fit & Fresh website:
All sorts of betterness. EXCEPT: I am a little lugubrious that they’ve lost the lovely alliteration of the last line!
So bravo, Fit & Fresh. And as I said on Red Pen Brigade’s shiny-new Twitter account: if you send me pictures of the new packaging, I’ll post that too. My readers — all eleven of them! — like to support businesses with a proper respect for punctuation.
Or should I say Monday’s?
Either way, Kacia has a prescription for your Monday blues. It’s an Anonymous Honorary RPBer submission! And thank goodness, because who really wants an unnecessary apostrophe on their first day back at work?
So three cheers for whomever, and for the Red Tape of Correctness!
This is a link to someone else’s post, because it is that excellent.
Go check out a little piece called Brid food sign tells a story of retail woe at BoingBoing!
(thanks to Bill to flagging this up!)