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Little, Big
3 months ago
Monday, July 14, 2008
Copyediting on the road
To gear up for my upcoming gig, I mentally edited the road signs I saw on my way home from Tennessee. I saw these two within 100 feet of each other:
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There is so much bad punctuation on signs that I see here in the big city that it makes me nuts. I can't even acknowledge it at times because it is so frequent. I'm not talking about the occasional misplaced comma. For some reason there is a major trend to use quotation marks to highlight anything and everything (amongst other punctuation misuses). They are not used in their proper context for indicating spoken word or an approximation.
Here's one of my favorite examples:
At a nearby independent fast food joint the front window had the words
"HOT" DOGS
and
"CHICKEN" WINGS
painted in bold colors.
Now tell me, do you think thst those dogs are served lukewarm? Are the wings made of some sort of soy protein to bring in the vegan crowd? Even scarier, were the wings made of some other potpourri of meat? I really don't think so. Why the words had to have those silly quotes when they were already sprawled across the window in neon hues was beyond me. I see it here more than in any other place on earth.
I love it!! I wish I had a log of all the sins against the written word I've seen on signs throughout the country.
Since I posted this, I've been racking my brain trying to remember some of the better (or would that be worse?) ones. One that came to mind is actually a repeat offender--Tee Jaye's Country Place. Their sign regularly invites customers to come in for some of "Granny's home cooken".
I think granny needs to be offering some home SCHOOLIN' instead.
Ok, this is a tangent, but I have to show it to you when you come to visit.
There is also a sign for a nearby fur retailer, regularly doused by red paint that says:
SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT- WEAR MORE FUR
I think this one has misused quotes too.
I also refrain from screaming when I see the abused apostrophe.
Eat more fries'
Class's for children
Please, tell me what belongs to the fries and the class.
Oh my heavens . . . good stuff. I don't even understand the fur one!
Another tangent: There is a small collection of businesses in Northeast Columbus that reside in the unfortunately named "S&M Business Park". What were they thinking when they selected that name? And who would want to rent space there? I just envision office workers wearing ball gags, their superiors looming over them with whips and chains.
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