Chinese Food and Real Estate

Not long ago, I stopped on my way home for take-out Chinese food, which I ordered from this menu:

Yurrrrrrmmm, I love Chinese cruisine!

As I waited, my take-out menu clutched in my sweaty palm, quivering with the slightly inappropriate desire to giggle hysterically and point out the typo to everyone within earshot, I took a bit of a stroll around the neighbourhood. You can imagine my joy/chagrin to come across this high-vis sign:

Oh yeah! Double whammy day!

Come on out and buy a new condo all you Mariniers: sailiors, fishiers, captiains and all other seafariers welcome.

Proposition anyone?

I recently received an email from someone asking if I would be interested in adding their online grammar checker to my editing website. I had a good look at the site and tried out the grammar checker (as far as I could go without paying). The only thing that really caught my attention was the homepage text (it's here: http://www.grammarcheck.net/...please note that I don't recommend it!):

...blah blah blah...like many, you’ve likely forgotten much of what you learned. Where does the comma go, for instance? Is ending your sentences with a proposition really that bad a practice?

Hahahahaha... that's pretty funny, but not super smart for a site that specializes in grammar and spell checking. I sent an email and pointed out that I suspect they mean preposition instead of proposition, but I added that the practice of ending a sentence with a proposition might make for a more interesting discussion... ha ha (wink). I didn't get a response, and so far it hasn't been changed. I bet they used their own grammar checker to proofread it.

ITEAM!

Wandering through Coombs Market with a giant double scoop chocolate waffle cone (mostly running down my arm), I paused to admire this hand-made sign in the outdoor garden centre:

I like the artsy framing - cleverly broken up where the words stick out. Someone put a few minutes into making up this sign (but forgot to spell check).

I briefly considered it as an Apple thing (iTeam - I wonder if that's what they call themselves at Apple headquarters?), but then figured that if they were going to make a sign, surely they would have the technology and equipment to at least print it using a computer and printer instead of hand writing it.

I try to resist going into businesses and telling them about their typos. Mainly because I tend to end up looking smug and superior, and a lot of people don't care as long as the message gets across. So this is my passive-aggressive way of being smug and superior without having to face someone on the other side of a counter looking at me like I'm a doofus.

But, honestly (looking down my nose).... ITEAM?  Sheesh.

From Lorraine with Love

I'm sure some of you have seen this before, but it's a good one. If the your/you're question ever needed one definitive statement to clarify, this is it:

I love the Musketeer giving the message a friendly, jaunty feel. It makes me feel okay about posting something with the word "shit" in it, because Thaddeus here is oozing family-friendliness and a good dose of "just a healthy grammar lesson kiddies. Cheerio and all that. Don't forget to floss!"

Thanks Lorraine - this is one of my favourites!

Calling All Helens

Now that's exclusive: a boutique just for Helens (more than one Helen, made obvious by the lack of apostrophe). That's gotta be tough on business - there can't be that many Helens out there. BUT, this is potentially good news for me - my middle name just happens to be Helen. I'll have to drop by and see if that counts (because, if my eyes aren't deceiving me, those look like some pretty snazzy white fedoras on sale there).


This store got punctuation busted by Becky's (as in, belonging to Becky) iPhone. Thank you again, my vigilant compatriot!

Hannah's Post, and 2 Just For Fun

Hannah forwarded this to me - the apostrophes are great, but the comma makes all the difference:

It save lives... I wonder if we could start a postering campaign and plaster these far and wide as a warning to those who don't take us punctuation nerds seriously? SEE? This is life or death stuff we're talking about here!

Okay, I have 2 other quirky things to share that don't belong here at all, but which gave me a laugh. First, I have to sheepishly admit that my sister and I have been going through a phase of reading trashy romance novels and mailing them to each other when we're done. Both images are from books she sent to me. This first one is all about the artwork - I've heard that drawing hands is one of the most difficult aspects of creating art. Proof positive:

Okay, that's hard to see. Here's a close-up (sorry, a bit fuzzy):

Is that... his thumb? Egads! That must've been a terrible accident. Or does he have 6 fingers and that's his index finger kinked up over her hand? That would (sort of) explain why he has his wedding ring on his middle finger.  [Okay, I've spent entirely too much time studying this. I've tried to imagine that what I thought was his pinky is actually his thumb, I've tried to make my hands fit together like theirs with my "girl hand" pinky tucked away like the bride's, and I've concluded a few times that our hero, Cody, had polio as a kid and I'm making inappropriate fun of a cripple.]

My other bit of fun is a line of text from a 1972 Harlequin romance with a British heroine. She's an emergency ward nurse who, at one point, has to deal with an abused baby. I've highlighted a sentence from the scene just after:

Well, I don't know if tea and battered baby taste good together either, so I'd probably hold off on mixing flavours too.

[As an aside, because I love asides and because I've already crossed the family-friendly line for this post, the author's name is Betty Neels; when my partner Craig saw the book, he commented, "Betty Neels? I just bet she does..."]

Dr. Becky's Pet Peeve

My friend Becky has a grammar pet peeve that I share with her (really? I hear you say with surprise). [I threw the Dr. in the title because a) she is one, and b) I have brainy friends and I'm not afraid to brag about it.] She sent me this picture with the following comment:

At a fancy restaurant in Vancouver.  Boooooo!

I realize that when you gotta go you figure it out pretty quickly, so you can't argue with the functionality of these signs. All the womens and mens in the restaurant know which door to use. I do like the font, but FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, WOMEN AND MEN ARE ALREADY PLURAL, YOU FANCY VANCOUVER RESTAURANT OWNER!  ARRRRRGH!

High five Becky, high five.