The very ritzy, brand-new work/live/play complex near our house has movies in the “park” (a centrally-located, slightly green area) weekly during the summer and early fall. I spotted this lovely abuse of an apostrophe there last weekend. Actually, I think this one counts as a double mistake: the apostrophe is incorrect, and the correct title has a comma after the “s” as well.
It’s like rain on your wedding day…
Marjorie H. found this at our mutual alma mater. I hate to criticize the old place, but… yeah. Marjorie would like to add:
Note that this was for the writing portfolio!
You thought “Vote Grammar!” was over…
So I’ve been walking past this recently.
I’m not going to fault it for the quotation marks. If there’s a time to use random quotation marks without attribution of a quote, it’s probably with political slogans. So that gets a pass. But as far as I can tell, we’re also looking at
- a comma instead of a semicolon;
- a total lack of concluding punctuation; and
- a really interesting random capitalization of “she” and “already.”
Now I could understand capitalizing “already” if they were making a play on the candidate’s name or something. In this case, let me assure you that the candidate’s name is totally unrelated. So…
Quelle fromage!
The good news is: I’ve found a grocery store that sells cheese “ends,” so you can taste fancy cheeses without having to buy a whole one. So that’s excellent. Last weekend I bought several and took them home. I was suspicious of this one:
So I googled it. It turns out “English Glouster” is not a thing. There is a cheese called “English Gloucester,” but it looks nothing at all like this wedge looked. After much research, I determined that the (delightful) cheese I’d just eaten was, in fact, a Stilton with lemon rind. Mmm-mmm. But seriously: no clue what was up with the label-maker.
International oops
Margaret sends this one all the way from Jordan.
My time in Jordan predated digital cameras, but I sure do wish it hadn’t — there were some doozies! Thanks for catching this one, Margaret.
IRONICAL
My best friend — grammar snob, founding member of RPB, one of the most intelligent people I know — sent me the following message:
Does this count 4 rpb? The sharp is on the wrong line 4 the key sig and the stems are all pointing up. Drives me crazy every time i see it!
Yes, Q, I think this counts 4 RPB. It’s actually our first musical submission! So thx and ttyl! 😛
Get ’em young!
Reporter #1 found this and remarked,
It’s a good thing they don’t teach punctuation at preschool!
But it is never too soon for you to start teaching your daughter disdain for this sort of thing, Reporter #1. I eagerly look forward to her first submission. Mwahaha!
Keeping the faith
I’ll be honest: there are moments when I question the wisdom of maintaining this blog. Despite my legions of readers, all of whom comment and submit daily to let me know they exist (AHEM), I do wonder if it’s worth the cost, however minor. And occasionally I feel a bit guilty, because I do acknowledge that what we call good grammar is a very sociopolitically-loaded concept.
And then I stumble upon something like this website. (Well, I didn’t stumble upon it so much as Leah S. referred me to it.) I’m not going to describe it to you or screencapture it: it’s worth clicking through, period. And after you do so, reflect upon the fact that this person pays to maintain that domain — simply to serve as a shining beacon of truth and goodness.
Honorary RPB Membership bestowed.
RPB in the wild!
Another brilliant RPB sighting on the internet! This gem was found at lowercase L — go read the whole story!
Getting to the root of the matter
Reporter Q writes:
If this were created by a non-music-related organization, I might
understand (though probably not), but BASE? Dude.
Thanks, Q!