That would undoubtedly be in EVERY 1’S best interest. If only the shop displaying this sign could help us refine that goal and create an action plan. I can get behind that last goal, for sure, and you probably can, too. Maybe there’s a 1 somewhere in the world striving to curtail gun violence. Does 1 aspire to become 2? Aim for 10? Perhaps 1 aspires to a fancier font? I wonder what sort of goals a numeral can have. If I were a FIREFIGHTER (a more accurate and inclusive term), I’d be tempted to thwack this sign with my extinguisher and put a dent in FIREMANS. A blaze anywhere, for that matter! Thus I have a problem with FIREMAN, a singular noun. First of all, I sincerely hope that more than one person would respond to a blaze in an airport. There are more problems with this sign than writing FIREMANS instead of FIREMAN’S. This sign, in an elevator serviced by a major airline that should know better, lacks an apostrophe: I should note that hedging a punctuation bet this way never works, in class or in signs. The student hopes that if the word needs an apostrophe, the teacher will see one, and if it doesn’t, the teacher will see an untidy smudge. Whoever made this sign tried a tactic I’ve often seen students employ: miniaturizing the punctuation mark. Unless the HOUSES & LAND belong to a man named JOHN BUY, this apostrophe interrupts a perfectly good verb.Īnother unnecessary apostrophe, in the plural noun Mondays: Here’s an example from the first category, in a blurry photo I snapped from a moving car: What is it with apostrophes? They show up when they aren’t needed and go AWOL when they are. Wouldn’t it be nice to hire this company for the stock market? The economy could use a BOOM right around now.īOOM or not, I wish you a peaceful, joyful, healthy 2023. If you’re an executive with Alaska Airlines, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.) (With that in mind, I’d be happy to proofread this airline’s signs in exchange for a free trip. I think we can all agree that IN CASE OF FIRE, signs with instantly obvious instructions are preferable. I kept reading the message as FIRE ELEVATORS, a noncombustible (and most likely nonexistent) subset of ELEVATORS. It took me two days to decode this sentence, partly because I lose my mind when I’m traveling and partly because there’s a missing comma. It’s a poor quality photo, so I’ll reproduce the words: BUSINESS IS MOVING FROM JUNE TO A NEW PLACE.Ī NEW PLACE? Like July or October? What was wrong with JUNE? Too many weddings and graduations? Next is a message from a dry-cleaning shop. Pay attention to the third-to-last line:ĬAESAR CONTAINS NUTS, does he? What a clever way to indicate that power corrupts! Or maybe it’s an indictment of Nero, Julius, Augustus, and other CAESARS? My last post of the year, written during this busy holiday/winter-storm/school-vacation season.
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