Thursday, July 30, 2009

Don't forget the soup!

This Thai restaurant is BYOS -- bring your own soup:

Lunch Special
Come With Soup

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Unfortunate Cookie


Do you think if I forgive this comma splice, my fortune will come true?

Don't be hasty, prosperity will knock on your door soon.

Prosperity, I am waiting!

Monday, July 13, 2009

For Months


From a road closure announcement:

The orange barrels and barricades won't move for about for months.

The homophones strike again!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

People who live in glass houses ...

I received a press release this morning from a "veteran" English teacher promoting her new book, "My Dog Bites the English Teacher." The press release touts the book as a grammar primer that will help you to improve your college essays and to get a job with your stellar cover letter. However, the author of the press release isn't wowing me with her grammar guru status. A few examples:

But it is.
(So the author has a penchant for starting sentences with conjunctions. Yet she says later on that fragments are bad. And that's puzzling to me.)

This gives a negative first impression which can lose you an interview.
(This gives a negative first impression that the author does not understand the distinction between "that" and "which.")

Picture this ever so common situation:
(It is an ever-so-common problem to forget your hyphens when you are modifying a noun with an adjectival phrase.)

So Anders is on a mission to change the way grammar is taught.
(The second part of this sentence smacks of passive voice. Who is teaching this grammar, anyway? I hope not Anders.)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Celeb's Love Grody FroYo

I wouldn't question a celeb's love of frozen yogurt. I do question the use of apostrophes to pluralize. Tsk, tsk.

Side note to the headline writer who pulled "grody" out of the vault: The '80s called. They want their word back.