“Just kidding”

Written By: admin - Oct• 22•12

GrammarTroika Sister #2 is back in the game with this label from her daughter’s prescription. Apparently Walgreens isn’t sure this is a legal name.

I’ve only ever seen this on prescriptions for animals before — and even then, it has always driven me crazy. My pets have names, and those names are their real names. I always supposed that it was a legal thing, so pharmacies could distinguish between their human and non-human patients. But Skylar is definitely human; I’ve seen pictures of her. So this is kind of puzzling!

Thanks, Shannon!

Posted in "quotations", punctuation | 1 Comment »

Atlanta =/= Lilliput

Written By: admin - Oct• 19•12

My father snapped this one at the Atlanta Zoo last week, and sent it on to me with the gleeful caption, “Atlanta must be populated with short adults!”

Posted in Broken, Checked Still Missing, Editorial, just wrong, Not Checked | No Comments »

Looks okay to me…?

Written By: admin - Oct• 17•12

My mother says this has been bothering her for five years. Now it can bother all of us!

It is true that my mother didn’t actually photograph the sink. But I assume from her annoyed e-mail that the sink is just fine, not missing any limbs or profoundly traumatized in any way. So this is just another eye-roll-inducing example of people using adjectives as nouns to dismiss issues. Sigh.

Posted in just wrong | 2 Comments »

Zen Monday.

Written By: admin - Oct• 15•12

Submitted without comment.

The awesome Lefty found this one at a hotel during his travels. Thank him by checking out his music!

Posted in just wrong | No Comments »

Prioritizing

Written By: admin - Oct• 12•12

Colleen found this at the Dollar Tree, and admits she shouldn’t really be surprised.

Okay, I’m confused. What the? Yeah, yeah, I see the typo, but what is this? Is it a sign sold to children with siblings named Bill? Does it go on your mailbox and address anthropomorphized letters? What will this artifact tell future civilizations about us when they dig it up completely intact from the landfill?

Thanks for a fun week, Colleen!

Posted in homophone mishaps, words & syntax | No Comments »

Feeling lawyerly

Written By: admin - Oct• 10•12

It’s more Colleen!!

(What were you doing, Colleen, sitting on these until I insulted you? Or did you just run out and photograph everything as soon as I praised Kacia? Sheesh.)

Colleen says she’d never send her kids to this school. But I wonder if they wouldn’t actually get a good early education in legal precision. Clearly, the owners don’t want you suing when they duck tape your children to their desks, let them watch television all day, and then march them home under the maple trees.

Bonus points for the shot from the car!

Posted in misspellings & new words, words & syntax | 2 Comments »

I think Mayor Bloomberg would approve.

Written By: admin - Oct• 08•12

Kicking off a full week of submissions from GrammarTroika sister #1, we have something that will make you hungry. Or nauseate you. You pick!

Colleen notes,

Apparently Jack in the Box “requirs” I.D. for certain transactions. This is one label, so not one of those situations where the letter fell off. Someone actually typed it this way, read it and thought “nailed it,” before posting to the menu board.

I also appreciate the redundancy & incorrect abbreviation of $15.00 DLS. Fifteen dollars dollars, y’all!

I’m with you on both counts, Colleen.

Personally, I’m also hung up on the fact that this signage very clearly informs me that Jack in the Box requires ID before you can purchase bacon cheddar fries. Maybe not a bad idea!

Posted in just wrong, misspellings & new words, words & syntax | No Comments »

YES! Me too!!

Written By: admin - Oct• 05•12

Colleen (yep, again) says this is one of her pet peeves. This error falls cleanly into the “if it has more syllables, it makes me sound more educated” school of word-selection, and… yeah.

This error is one that I heard DAILY in my former workplace. Employees would regularly talk about “servicing” students, when they meant “serving” students. I was on a one woman crusade to eradicate phase. Why? First there is the connotation of the phrase “servicing our students.” Squick*. Then there is the cold hard grammar:

Servicing: present participle of serv·ice

1. Perform routine maintenance or repair work on (a vehicle or machine).

2.Supply and maintain systems for public utilities and transportation and communications in (an area): “the town is small but well serviced”.

Serv·ing

1. The act of one that serves.

Well, All-Met Recycling, you have been called out. On a shiny digital gadget of some sort, no less!

*Confused? The connotation to which Colleen refers means the thing Inara does in Mal’s lonely pathetic dreams.**

**You think I’d pass up an opportunity to quote Firefly? My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.

Posted in just wrong, words & syntax | 1 Comment »

Emergency RPB post!

Written By: admin - Oct• 04•12

That’s the subject line of an e-mail I received last night from my father. And he was not wrong! Below please find my mother’s birthday cake.

First of all, my mother’s name is Helen.

…Just kidding. Her name is actually Marjorie. But that is not how you spell Marjorie.

I love thinking of my parents opening the box and thinking, “Quick, go get the camera! We have to send this to Alden!”

Posted in just wrong, misspellings & new words, words & syntax | No Comments »

The couple that uses parallel constructions properly… uh, wins together?

Written By: admin - Oct• 03•12

Two orders of business before we get down to red-penning.

One, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! <insert singing, including joyful dog joining-in, here>

Ahem. Okay. Two: a warning. It seems that Colleen — otherwise known as GrammarTroika sister #1 — took my title-offering threat seriously and has stepped up her submission rate. So buckle your seatbelts and prepare for a bunch of stuff from her, y’all!

Colleen’s not just bringing the quantity, she’s got quality in the mix too. Check this one out.

We do have a clear error here, I’d argue: “Women Rights” is just not okay no matter how I parse it. But I think I can see how they got there. For whatever reason, I’m okay with “Patient Rights,” and you wouldn’t want to go sticking an apostrophe-s on “women” when you don’t have one on “patient.” The balance of the sign would be all wonky. You follow? My CDO (it’s OCD, in the correct alphabetical order!) tendencies are grateful.

On the other hand, they did decide to go with what I assume is a resume point (“charitable org. president”) as a parallel to an imperative verb statement (“remove corrupt politicans”). Which is way more unwieldy than that neglected apostrophe would have been.

I’m not going to imply that these… interesting choices cost Major and Mrs. Shah the election. I’m just saying. You know?

Posted in apostrophes, punctuation, subject/verb and structure, words & syntax | No Comments »

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