Grammar police, meet real police

Somerville resident Jeff Deck must pay $3,035 and stay out of all national parks for a year after using markers and white-out to correct "typos" on a historic sign at the Grand Canyon.

Deck has taken down his Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) website, but here's a Google-cached version of the page where he and his friends brag about doing this. Unfortunately, the photos are no longer online, and none of the news articles I've looked at have shown the actual sign in question.

(hat tip to Kat Powers at the Somerville Journal blog for noticing this story)

Update: Language Log has a photo of the sign.

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Are these the guys that make

By james | Fri, 08/22/2008 - 4:09pm

Are these the guys that make arbitrary assumptions about place names being posessives, or was that some other "grammar vandal"?

The journalist's, at the

By Dave | Fri, 08/22/2008 - 4:43pm

The journalist's, at the Dorchester Fishwrap, don't bother to mention what grammatical offenses the grammar nazi's corrected, but there are a few examples, in this posting.

The grammar nazi's what?

By Neal | Mon, 08/25/2008 - 9:25am

grammar nazi's

That should be nazis, not nazi's. The apostrophe indicates possession.

Jeff?

By Kaz | Mon, 08/25/2008 - 9:59am

Is that you?

LOL. Great post. They

By Anonymous | Fri, 08/22/2008 - 10:28pm

LOL. Great post.

They should take up a collection... use paypal.

As punishment

By Kaz | Fri, 08/22/2008 - 10:57pm

I sentence them to being forced to reading only e.e. cummings for the next 2 years:

Starting with "she being Brand..."

she being Brand

-new;and you
know consequently a
little stiff i was
careful of her and(having

thoroughly oiled the universal
joint tested my gas felt of
her radiator made sure her springs were O.

K.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her

up,slipped the
clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she
kicked what
the hell)next
minute i was back in neutral tried and

again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my

lev-er Right-
oh and her gears being in
A 1 shape passed
from low through
second-in-to-high like
greasedlightning)just as we turned the corner of Divinity

avenue i touched the accelerator and give

her the juice,good

                          (it

was the first ride and believe i we was
happy to see how nice she acted right up to
the last minute coming back down by the Public
Gardens i slammed on

the
internalexpanding
&
externalcontracting
brakes Bothatonce and

brought allofher tremB
-ling
to a:dead.

stand-
;Still)

Having to read Dr. Seuss

By Jiffywoob | Fri, 08/22/2008 - 11:02pm

Having to read Dr. Seuss would make for good punishment too.

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