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We're such perfectionists sometimes
By adamg on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 8:34pm
How many times, do you think, did somebody walk by that door at State Street station before she finally couldn't stand it anymore and whipped out a Sharpie to add the verb?
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Comments
Howdya know it was a woman?
Coulda been me!
Not a clue
Just subverting the dominant paradigm and all.
Oh.
How about subverting the dominant paradigm with a sports story, a government story or something not so nitpicky woman-ish, then?
or
alternatively we would accept subverting the paradigm with a well-placed comma rather than the more obvious verb choice.
I got yer dominant paradigm right heah...
How about subverting the dominant paradigm by logging in and submitting your own sports story, government story, or something not so nitpicky woman-ish?
Adam doesn't hold exclusivity on the ability to create content here. He has chosen to only hold ultimate editorial control.
subvert it properly...
Use "they" like the rest of the world does when seeking the gender-neutral pronoun.
The rest of the world save people who obsess with grammar
Since "their" doesn't go with "somebody" and I'm finding it hard to picture that "is" being the result of a committee.
I know, I'm a fossil.
it's a common misconception
It's a common misconception that "they" can only be plural.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/they.html
Also, while I haven't checked, I suspect it's in both of the two style guides I own.
Nevermind that if you wrote "How many times, do you think, did somebody", you shouldn't be critiquing other people's grammar :)
"How many times do you think someone walked by that door at State Street station, before they finally couldn't stand it anymore and whipped out a Sharpie to add the verb?"
Actually, I'm wondering if leaving out the "is" was intentional - a secret signmaking rule to improve comprehension/recognition? The lack of "is" might emphasize "not" since "not" is then by itself? Our eyes/brains do weird things when we scan a bit of text very quickly.
Oh, please! (not the comma)
The commas were deliberate. Yeah, I actually thought about them. I was giving somebody the chance to rub their chin thoughtfully as they pondered the question. It has a subtly different meaning than the sentence without the commas.
As for criticizing somebody's grammar? Me? I leave that to my wife, the English major.
Muddled truths
Good laughs here come from the absolutes we retain from early learning.
As a long-time technical writer, I note that informational and warning signs require different priorities. They often sacrifice what Emerson referred to as a foolish consistency for quick comprehension.
Consider as another example a SLOW CHILDREN sign. More syntactically and grammatically correct, it might read PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY. INATTENTIVE CHILDREN MAY BE PLAYING IN OR CROSSING THIS STREET.
The object of the sign is for drivers traveling at perhaps 30 miles per hour to get the key idea quickly. I for one can forgive the expression.
That written, I wonder why the sign doesn't read simply NO EXIT and let readers enjoy the Sartre allusion while displaying the easily understood message.
Slow children!
That one always gets me!
On Paul Gore St in JP, there are signs announcing the presence of Speed Humps. I'd feel a little insecure if I lived in a house behind one of those signs.
The sign defaced lacks creativity. They could have just as easily
Shatnerized the sign by adding punctuation.
This door...
not...
an exit!!
Another acceptable revision
This door?
Not an exit!
Olny the Slo
We could also go with "THIS DOOR: NOT AN EXIT!".
Emergency Stopping Olny on Rt. 16 and "slo" squeezed into a sign from Forest Street in Arlington not withstanding.
Well, saying "THIS DOOR"
is an unnecssary redundancy. "NOT AN EXIT" perfectly conveys the message.
As someone once said, Brevity is the soul of wit and the essence of highway signs
I think they could have done a question mark
(a la Ron Burgundy when they mess with his teleprompter!)
Or in a more convoluted option:
(commas suggesting direct address to someone named improbably named "Door", and telling him/her that this is not an exit.
Interrogative Form
(IS) THIS DOOR NOT AN EXIT?
Just be glad
The person could have scared everyone with an anagram:
TO A THINNED SOX RIOT
Sign corrector introduced new error
I'm all for applying Sharpies to public signs (the giant sign directing folks at the Arlington T stop to the "Public Gardens" was particularly grating in my book), but this editor introduced mixed case to an all-uppercase sign. I now want to scrub off that Is and replace it with IS, ideally in letters the same size as the rest of the sign.
Three.
Three.