NY Has Officially Lost It's Mind Bitch

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Fish Kill.

Fishkill, Catskill, Peekskill, ... very popular name up there... Kill means creek, which lends a certain humor to John Romero's [of ID/Ion Storm (in-)famy] wife Killcreek.

[DanaC]

In a way, yes it is a joke. A joke on people so incompetent with a dictionary that they were willing, all unawares, to declare it in public.

Yeah...that's a bit like that poor bloody Paediatrician that got hounded by righteous parents.

[Rexmons]

[Clodfobble]

Reminds me of one of my all-time favorites from www.overheardinnewyork.com:

Dumb teen: Hey, look at this! It says "Train for jobs in biotch."
Smarter teen: Fool! That word is biotech. Why you gotta be ignorant all your life?

[DanaC]

I've told this one before, but i'll tell it again cause it sticks in my mind:

A beautifully 'chalked' blackboard sign, wth border decoration and little pictures of wine glasses and popping corks and this message, artfully drawn with delightful little serifs:

"Christmas bookings now bean taken"

[yesman065]

How bout the COVER of Mainline JulyAugust 2007 (in the Philly area)

DISAPPEARING ACT
Is the Main Line vanishing underour watch?
Of course the picture on the front is an attractive woman in a bikini with the placement of the "underour" about hip high.

This magazine claims to be an Arts, Culture and Lifestyle Magazine

[wolf]

That would be the free slick magazine with the advertising for the high-end businesses you can't afford to drive past, much less go into?

I get the Montgomery County version.

On a cover, more often than not the problem is actually one of bad kerning, the space is there, but it's not balanced the same as the rest of the text. You got picture?

[yesman065]

I think you are talking about Lifestyle Magazine. This is the one that recently was in a lawsuit with Mainline today over the name. I have the mag at work, but our new scanner doesn't get installed till Monday - will see what I can do then.

[DanaC]

Why do you care so much Urbane?

I don't think it's contemptible to want to see in others' writings, what they intended rather than wilfully disparage it simply for a misplaced apostrophe. Actually, apostrophes are one of the more difficult concepts in the English language to grasp. Many, many people who are otherwise perfectly competant at communicating in both verbal and written arena, and whose vocabulary is just as extended as either yours or mine, have difficulty with the correct usage of apostrophes. There are one or two very specific usages of the possessive apostrophe that I have to think carefully about and I used to teach the language.
There is a reason we have the phenomenon of the Greengrocer's apostrophe.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Why do you care so much Urbane?

Because he can't argue the point, he resorts to a, "Hey, look a birdie" move.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Because he can't argue the point, he resorts to a, "Hey, look a birdie" move.

Hmm. See above, Bruce. You can pretend I can't argue the point, but everyone will see you pretending.

And if you're going to expose yourself that thoroughly, you might want to consider... hmm, tattoos.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Why do you care so much Urbane?

Why do you ask? I respect my mother tongue and use her properly. Incompetence isn't good, and incompetence this elementary is unbecoming an adult human. Don't ask again: this is my answer and it's a good one.

I don't think it's contemptible to want to see in others' writings, what they intended rather than wilfully disparage it simply for a misplaced apostrophe. Actually, apostrophes are one of the more difficult concepts in the English language to grasp.

I do not and did not find it so; indeed, apostrophes as used on this side of the pond are among written English's most systematic and logical usages. I had these mastered before I left elementary school. Surely, if I can manage it, without flaws...

Many, many people who are otherwise perfectly competent at communicating in both verbal and written arena, and whose vocabulary is just as extended as either yours or mine, have difficulty with the correct usage of apostrophes. There are one or two very specific usages of the possessive apostrophe that I have to think carefully about and I used to teach the language.

I took the liberty of amending your spelling -- and yes, it takes me some memory-scouring and in some extremities the dictionary to remember if it's -ant or -ent -- the -ent is "one-who-does-something" most of the time but not all. (A careful course in phonics early on helps a great deal.) We can blame it on not having an English equivalent of the Academie Francaise. (Diacriticals omitted; this BBS does not cooperate with ASCII-coding them in. Try it only if you'd like to see which surprise page you end up on.)

I simply know those specific usages -- and I do give thought to what are somewhat gray areas, such as pluralizing abbreviations, where one can argue that an apostrophe there is standing in for those letters not included in the abbreviation. This usage has the virtue of not effecting an alteration of the abbreviation. Too, if one is quite uncomfortable with adding the tadpole, abbreviation in uppercase and the pluralizing -s in lower is still an option.

There is a reason we have the phenomenon of the Greengrocer's apostrophe.

A reason as infamous as its examples are widespread -- they were asleep in fourth-form English class.

Competence is good. More competence is better, and it is hardly unreasonable to expect it.

[TheMercenary]

Someone needs to tell that Bitch Council woman to sit down and shut the hell up.

[DanaC]

Someone needs to tell that Bitch Council woman to sit down and shut the hell up.

They should also tell her to untwist her panties.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

All your talent, it seems, is confined to electrical engineering, leaving a conspicuous want of them in the languages.

On the other hand, he can hold down a steady job, and you sell knives in a pyramid scam. There's a lot to be said for the marketability of one's skills.