Thursday, June 12, 2008

Unleash the word police

So, today I pulled up behind a truck bearing the following bumper sticker: "If you can read this, your TOO DAMN CLOSE."

I know grammar and spelling aren't everyone's bag, and that's fine. (See my previous post on this topic.) I'm not a real big fan of math, for that matter.

But don't we learn the difference between your/you're; their/there/they're; and to/too/two in, oh, I don't know, third to fifth grade? I mean, it's not like someone misspelled "antidisestablishmentarism" on the bumper decal -- a faux pas that would be perfectly reasonable. Expected, even.

It's amazing to me that a company spent the time and money to create a fucked up sticker, presumably to be sold to many people. Clearly, though, some people don't notice the error and stick it to the tailgate of their Dodge Ram anyway. But still, don't companies have proof readers?

I'm not saying I'm perfect. All people make mistakes, typos, etc. It just seems like businesses would make the effort to double check stuff that's on display to the public.

I'll close my rant with my favorite example, which was written in enormous capital letters on a dry erase board at Dooley's Bagels. "TRUKEY SANDWICHES: SPECIAL OF THE MONTH." And it read like that for the entire month -- again, on a dry erase board, which could be fixed in about two seconds. I went in there for coffee and bagels about 8 times that month, and I cringed every time.

Oh well. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I'm currently watching "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" for the first time and it's really sad. I'm beginning to realize that tons and tons and tons of people are dumber than rocks.

Oh well. One more day until the weekend! Yippee!

1 comment:

Liz said...

Oh man, I would NOT have been able to go in there kept my mouth shut about the misspelling.

I remember one time at this local art gallery, which will remain unnamed, they painted on the wall where the children's art hung: Kid's Art Gallery. I pointed out to the director that there were many children showing art, not just one. His response? He got mad at me and told me to shut up. People can't handle it when you point stuff out. But I still do it. Cause I'm a jerk like that.