O.T. : What Have We Done ... ?

[Arfa Daily]

What have we done to the ederkayshun in this country ?

Seen in a shop window when I just took a wander down to the village centre :-

"WE HAVE MOVED A CROSSED THE ROAD"

It's enough to make you weep ...

Arfa

[Dave Baker]

I spotted a postcard on the for sale board in the village supermarket the other day and later another the same in the newsagent's window.

LOGS FOR SALE

Small bags £x Large bags £y Kinderlin £z per bag

I wasn't even aware you could legally sell small German children by the sack load but you learn something new every day.

[Graeme]

In message , Arfa Daily writes

I'm a sub postmaster, and often see letters addressed to Mr Jone's, Mr Smither's etc.

[John]

Heard on my local radio station this morning,

also remember seeing an ad in the Yellow Pages a few years ago for an antiques dealer, one of the 'bullet points' was Objey Dart!!

John

[OG]

The 'correct language' pedants would say that's the correct usage. "Jones" means "of John", so for the deep dyed pedants who complain about getting rid of apostrophies in place names, "Jone's" should be the preferred form.

[OG]

or even 'apostrophes'

[Arfa Daily]

Unbelievable, John. I was in a friend's shop the other day, and I noticed a new sign in his window which said "Car Radio's Fitted Here". I said to him "Car radios' what ?" After I carefully explained to him, following the total lack of comprehension at the point I was making, he told me that he hadn't noticed as he had had a local print shop make it up for him, by telephone.

Also, my local version of The Business Times has a 'funny quotes' section on the back page. For a long long time, it was called "They said what !" I finally managed to get hold of the editor by email, and explained that whilst what they were trying to say might well be an exclamation, it was primarily a question, and nobody was actually saying the word "what", which was what was being implied. I told him that a question mark must come first to establish the meaning of the syntax, and that then they could further add an exclamation mark, or put the word "what" in italics to indicate that the question was being asked with a degree of incredulity.

He got what I was saying, and the next issue was corrected to

"They said //what// ?"

which is how it's been ever since. A minor victory, but it make you wonder why someone whose profession is a newspaper editor, hasn't got enough understanding of the English language, to have realised for himself that it was wrong ...

Arfa

[PeterC]

Indeed - there should be puctuation in there.

Seems an extreme reaction to a single letter crossing a road, though.

[Lino expert]

Birmingham Council are going to remove apostrophes from road signs because no-one knows where they should and shouldn't go. Talk about the line of least resistance.

[Rod]

Wasn't this done by the OS many years ago - with a few exceptions?

[Mike Barnes]

Those 'correct language' pedants are misguided. "Jones" is the name and the etymology is irrelevant. As far as "the preferred form" is concerned, the owner of the name is the final authority, and if he prefers to call himself Jones, Jones it is, and the opinions of others count for nothing.

Similarly with place names, there is a naming authority, e.g. the local council, and it's their ruling that matters. Place names are not (internally) subject to any rules of grammar or irrevocably tied to their derivation.

[Peter Crosland]

I blame Pink Floyd!

Peter Crosland

[The Medway Handyman]

' Garage around here with 'Keep Cleer' painted on the doors.

[David in Normandy]

So why did "A" cross the road? Was there a chicken waiting for it?

[Andy Dingley]

I know an English teacher by the name of Rumpelstiltskin (but don't let on). You forward something like that to her and by the morning she'll have turned it into an excellent fairy story in the style of the Brothers Grimm. She does pomes too - I once challenged her to come up with, "Sylvia Plath's guide to gas fitting".

[John Stumbles]

... and?

Don't keep us hanging on here Andy, we've got to hear this!

[john]

Local garage, big sign on counter, "Vaccum cleaner =A31". Been there over 6 months. "We've 'ad no complaints mate".

[Mike Barnes]

Yebbut... it's impossible to clean a vaccum. By definition.

[Dave]

That reminds me of my early apprenticeship days.

I was designated to learn/work in an offshoot of the tool room in a press shop. They had a cupboard there and on the front were the words

Kee Pout

Dave

[The Medway Handyman]

LOL

That stirred a memory of when I was about 10 years old - in nineteen hundred & frozen to death.

A sikh family moved into a house a few street away, a rare thing in those days. The word "gnikrapon" was painted on the wooden garage doors shortly afterwards.

Me & my mates assumed that this was some mysterious Indian word & we all wondered what on earth it meant. It took us months to realise he had tried to write "noparking" in mirror writing & not got it right.