Copacabana

Somber calls them scare quotes

Taking a break from the news because I just don't have the energy to be freaked out by how I'm going to die penniless tomorrow. Sigh. I met a man once from a tribal village in Africa who was here in the states going to school and I asked him what he considered the biggest difference between the African worldview and the worldview he'd encountered in the States. He said that in Africa, they knew life was dangerous and that they were prone to disease and tragedy and pain and discomfort. They just didn't talk about it as much, preferring instead to LIVE THEIR LIVES rather than worry them away. Just sayin'.

On that note, here's some funny because I'm an intellectual, specifically a language, snob. This can be ironic given my tendency to butcher grammar but let's not discuss that. (Thanks Nate and John for these).

Some people are worse at grammar. As Dave Barry put it in his tips for writers:

Dear Mister Language Person: What is the purpose of the apostrophe?

Answer: The apostrophe is used mainly in hand-lettered small business
signs to alert the reader than an "S" is coming up at the end of a
word, as in: WE DO NOT EXCEPT PERSONAL CHECK'S, or: NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR
ANY ITEM'S. Another important grammar concept to bear in mind when
creating hand- lettered small-business signs is that you should put
quotation marks around random words for decoration, as in "TRY" OUR HOT
DOG'S, or even TRY "OUR" HOT DOG'S.
-- Dave Barry, "Tips for Writer's"

posted by Lola @ 2:42 PM