Also - conversation with Larry:
Larry: Hey Mom - where is the wrapping paper? I have something to send my friend K. She's sad and I wanted to cheer her up.
Me: It's in my alcove closet. What are you sending her?
Larry: A bunch of My Little Ponies. She collects them. I thought I'd put them in the mail and surprise her, cheer her up. I got five of them.
Me: That's sweet.
Larry: Yeah, she loves My Little Pony. She also loves this guy in a band, but I can't capture him and mail him. It would be wrong and probably illegal.
Hee.
Not diggin':
People born in this country who cannot use proper English. I overheard this conversation (and many others like it) on the train:
Random girl: What you talkin' bout? He be going wit her. Dis wut I mean. She a bitch.
What offends me about this is not dropping of consonants, but the lack of verbs and the incorrect verbs. I'm offended by the pejorative use of the word bitch, but I can live with that. The verb problem drives me bananas.
Here is the corrected sentence:
Crazy Mom
Not quite as bad. Perhaps I should offer my services to those in need.
Or...... maybe not. This might not endear me to the general population of Hotlanta train riders.
I also can't tolerate improper use of the possesive and improper use of the apostrophe. Or leaving out the apostrophe in contractions. These are like fingernail on a chalk board to me. As is the improper use of whom.
Years ago, I got ABC News to change their Friday night news teaser on the person of the week. The TV screen showed the outline of a head with the words "Whom will ABC choose?", which is incorrect. 'Who' is correct there, not 'Whom'. I called my local ABC affiliate and worked my way up the food chain. I finally got to Roone Arledge's office (he was head of ABC News at the time) where I expressed my displeasure at the language choice and told why I was offended. Are you a teacher, they asked. No, just someone with a basic education. And the next Friday it was changed. Ha! Really, it's a true story.
Damn. Now I need to work. Why can't I win the lottery? Maybe I should invest in some tickets....
great post...you tell 'em...no better not. We value you!
ReplyDeleteHaha! You tell 'em. One of the higher ups in R&D sent out a memo yesterday with the word 'goes' spelled as go's, I kid you not. With red pen in hand, I corrected every copy I could find and posted them where they could be seen by everyone in the office. Methinks I'll be getting the third degree when I go in tonight.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU! I have often thought a teacher of English should have students correct newspapers as an exercise to practice proper spelling and grammar. The corrected columns should be sent to the editor. If the media - print and broadcast - use the 'lowest common denominator' criteria as the 'standard' for production, we can expect no better from our students. A few days ago I read a column by an physician and he actually spelled 'amoeba' as 'ameba'! MOAN!
ReplyDeleteSome of the typographical errors found in newspapers are made by the typesetters, who very often can't spell worth a flip. It's been my personal goal for many years now to find at least one error (typo, grammar, wrong picture for the cutline, bad placement of articles, etc) in our local paper daily. I'm sad to say that I exceed that goal most of the time. What really irritates me is book editors - do they actually read the books they're credited with editing? There is one in particular - I would love to know if she actually exists or is a "house name" for St. Martin's Press!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that Larry sent his pal the ponies.
ReplyDeleteHow sweet is Larry? Seriously. A funny guy, too.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I am constantly offended by improper apostrophes--I can handle the dangling modifier but subject/verb agreement and apostrophes are critical. WHY is it so hard to speak our native tongue fluently?
LOL! Incorrect spelling drives me crazy. However the worst is spell check gone wrong - saying you're instead of your for example. There are a lot of other examples along those lines but I can't think of any more. I have actually stopped reading blogs because of such errors. Everyone will have a typo now and again, but in some cases you see such errors (and other typos) several times in each post. Yikes!
ReplyDelete