Archy speaks up

Posted by R berg on February 15, 2002

In Reply to: S/B $75 posted by Bruce Kahl on February 14, 2002

:
: : : : Lindsay, I'm not trying to make you feel bad. It's just that bad English bothers me more than the sight of mismatched socks, and being in a position where you're setting an example for children, you have a responsibility that not everyone has. Your post is in a style that became popular among teenagers in recent years, a style that ventures far from standard English. Children look to teachers to find out how adults should do things, including speaking and writing. -- rb

: : : Hmmm. Now it's very rare that I find myself in two minds about anything, but here I do. My instinctive Brit gallantry and sense of manners puts me firmly in the ESC camp, where the point that the poster has no ability to correct the errors is very well made. However, my equally instinctive Brit anal retentivism, combined with an unjustifiably arrogant sense of "holier than thou" when it comes to being correct in all matters linguistic makes me side with R. Berg. Now here's a tough call to make...

: : : Looking at the original post, and presuming it was *really* posted by an elementary school teacher - so sue me, I'm a cynic - I can overlook almost everything, either putting it down to typo's or to today's inelegant yet widespread usage of heavily abbreviated computer-ese. HOWEVER, the use of "were" for the word "where" is just too much to swallow. That's neither a typo nor an abbreviation, and just grates horribly.

: : : Another relevant cautionary tale, this time from the UK. I heard this on talk radio, as told by the grandmother of the child in question. Her 10 year old grandson returned from school one day clutching an English essay which he'd written. In this, his usage of the phrase "...should have done..." had been marked wrong and replaced with "...should of done..."!!!! Following a few frustrating calls to the school, the admirably belligerent grandma, who was clearly both a well-spoken and well-educated woman, marched up to the school to confront the English teacher. After 20 solid minutes of heated discussion, all she could get as an admission was that, although "...should have done..." MIGHT have been more correct "many years ago" (!!!), these days, "...should OF done.." was more correct, because of its widespread contemporary usage.

: : : Sometimes I truly despair...

: : I was waiting on a line at my local Verizon cell phone service center recently and I spot a sign detailing the various charges for service, one of which reads "75$ per hour per occurance".

: : OCCURANCE???
: : What the....?

: : This was a sign that was not hand written. This sign was from corporate.
: : ( Verizon is a very large telecommunications company located in the USA. )

: : So I turn to the woman with whom I was having a conversation and point out the error and she states that I was incorrect and that "occurance" IS the correct way to spell occurrence. She confirmed her knowledge of the subject by stating that she was a teacher of Language Arts in the NYC schools.
: : Talk about despair.

: Talk about irony.
: Here I am making an error also.
: The above price should have read "$75", not "75$".
: Duh!!

what a night boss I just got back from that little
tavern around the corner where I was visiting
relatives it s not a bad place the pretzels are
free and the barmaid knows me by name
anyway boss this place draws a high toned
literary crowd at least if you believe what they
say about themselves and when I got there some
of the regulars were arguing loudly about matters
of style it seems that style is very important to
these people although you wouldn t know it to
look at them I listened carefully from my perch
among the pretzels where I heard lots of tsk
tasking about the state of language nowadays
as I said they take style very seriously they were
trading stories about incorrect this and misspelled
that until finally one fellow pounded the table and
said what difference does it make we re not writing
the divine comedy here and I thought well I don t
have a better name for it do you by then it was almost
closing time so I left quietly pausing only to sample a
puddle of spilled stout mixed with something or other
by the way boss thanks for the apple pie it came just
in time I had been thinking of taking another job
don t laugh boss I had a good offer of a domestic
position the family said they d treat me like one
of their own they seemed like swell people and
i may take them up on it in my next life I know
that sounds absurd their name is samsa
archy

• It was lime Word Camel 02/15/02
  • Re lime r berg 02/15/02
    • Re lime Word Camel 02/15/02
      • Deja discord The Fallen 02/15/02
        • Deja discord R. Berg 02/15/02
        • The Beetles Word Camel 02/15/02
          • The Edge Of The Monitor eswes jo6aj6 02/15/02
            • Over the edge The Fallen 02/15/02
              • Roach motel archy 02/15/02
                • Roach motel bob 02/15/02