I drive about 50,000 miles a year for my job. I cover a territory from Junction City, Kansas to Columbia, MO (west to east), and from Bethany, MO to Pine Bluff, MO (north to south). I see a lot of things while I am driving that make me chuckle or laugh out loud, either because they are really funny or because I am overly bored. I see some things that no one will ever believe. I forget about some of the weird things I see, and never get to share them. I always wish that I would keep a digital camera with me when I am driving.
Last week, I happened to have my digital camera with me when I passed a sign. I am pretty good at catching other people's spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors--I wish I caught my own errors as well as I catch other people's. I see them all the time, and they are usually honest mistakes. The main reason that I am posting this is because I finally had a camera and a few minutes when I wished I had one.
I am also posting this to make fun of K-State because I am a KU fan. This sign is on KS 24 in Manhattan, KS, just miles away from Kansas State University (which apparently needs to focus on their English department as much as their football program). I think they want you to come in and get some energy, but they were too tired to check their spelling. Perhaps the person responsible has ADD, and I am being really insensitive right now. For whatever it is worth, here is the sign:
1 comment:
Ha! I see things like this all the time too. Because I teach English, I suspect that the person responsible for changing the sign may very well be a minimum-wage high school drop-out and they may honestly not know the correct spelling.
Common mis-spellings I have routinely seen in papers: Oprah for 0-p-e-r-a and midevil for m-e-d-i-e-v-a-l. Some mis-spellings are so common that I begin to think that I'm crazy and finally drag my dictionary out to double-check. Another common one is the substitution of "of" in the phrase "could have". I have even found this in edited books.
I am a descriptivist rather than a prescriptivist when it comes to language. That is, I believe that the language is constantly evolving according to the way that people actually USE the language. This means that little by little even text-messaging abbreviations will leak into acceptable usage.
My current favorite is: End Road Work. I read End as a verb and think that it expresses my protest against road construction pretty accurately.
Post a Comment