From Bad to Worse

Huh?

Irony: Uniquely American!

These cringe-worthy displays of language deficiency make me want to laugh in disbelief... and weep for the evidently sorry state of English in our country.

Naturally, the latter reaction matters more to me.

Why sign painters need copyeditors

This bin caught my eye when I was walking past the UHM Art Building. "Noncombustibal" looked wrong, but I had to look up how to spell it. I think it would make a great spelling-test word (the correct spelling is "noncombustible"). The Art Department has a lot of bins with the same lettering, so even though the artist gets a "C" for spelling, he/she gets an "A" for consistency!

Frield Noddles

A friend of mine found this sign at a restaurant and I thought I'd share.

Is it just me or are you less likely to buy food from a place with a sign like this?

Trying to be cute, the sign that is.

I know they are trying to be cute with the sign, but it really kinda bugs me. They had a lot of those, (bugs) in their corn too.

Unique Baby Names??

I can't even begin to explain how I ended up on this web page, but I found a site that suggested ways to come up with unique names for your newborn (or to be born) children.

Unique punctuation - Create a totally unique name by making unusual use of punction such as the placing of an apostrophe, a hyphen or a middle Capital Letter.

Alternative Spellings - An easy way to create unique baby names. A good example is Ryann or Delyia.

First of all, does that really say 'punction'?

And second, there should be editing rules against this sort of baby naming.

Octopodes!

I was looking up a word on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and fell in love when I came across this video. This link is to a video that discusses the plural of octopus, but the editors of Merriam-Webster have put together a lot of short videos discussing different word usages. Enjoy!

(Also, I think I will say octopodes from now on to inspire discussions of etymology!)

Hard to believe...

SOUTH BEND — If you ever wondered how much difference just one letter can make when it comes to a message, ask the thousands of people who drove by a digital billboard near the intersection of Ironwood and Indiana 23 between Thursday and Monday morning.

The ad urged people to go to the “southbendon.com” website for a look at the “15 best things about our pubic schools.” That’s right, the billboard said “pubic” instead of “public” schools. The letter “L” had been left out of the word public.

Why writing skills are so important

If one wishes to engage aggressively and cogently in debates surrounding important issues, especially in writing, one should at least be able to express oneself correctly, lest he or she be taken for a "moran."