Eats, Shoots, and Leaves…

I’m one of those pedantic people who point out mistakes in other people’s written literacy: including text messages; greetings cards and signs.

Grammatically incorrect signs annoy me more than anything else because their purpose is for people to see and look at them, so in short, to read them. But, if it is grammatically incorrect, it could have a completely different meaning.

EG: A Panda eats shoots and leaves.

A Panda eats, shoots, and leaves.

This is the obvious example that is used so frequently among linguists. But this example comes from this joke: 

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

‘Why?’ asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

‘Well, I’m a panda,’ he says, at the door. ‘Look it up.’

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. ‘Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots, and leaves.’

Sort it out.

Published in: on July 12, 2010 at 8:07 pm  Leave a Comment  

You dont know what you got ’till it’s gone…

Lately, in the ex-garden of England - Kent, the weather has genuinely been something a little bit special. The sun’s been shining and there’s been a pleasant breeze to cool all those ignorant enough to rise above the idea of sun cream. Humming of Bees, the smell of freshly cut grass, and the taste of slightly overdone burgers are contantly in mind. However, and with one of my blogs there is always a however. However, there are those who voice a different opinion. “It’s way too hot!”, “I hate this, it’s too hot!” are just two of the foolishly made statements i’ve recently heard. Now, when it was winter, and when it rolls back round these people are going to realise that they want the sun back. Maybe they should make up their mind.

“You don’t know what you got ’till it’s gone.” Cinderella, 1988.

Published in: on July 10, 2010 at 8:28 pm  Comments (1)  

2062 – when i’m 68.

I’ve also decided to blog less about movie reviews, and just share what i’m really thinking. But kudos to Steven Keevil for starting me on a literary adventure that i’m sure will be very short-lived. We’ll see though. but if i do make any posts in 2062 when i’m 68 then i was wrong.

Published in: on July 10, 2010 at 12:26 am  Leave a Comment  

No news is good news… right?

The majority of people think, in a very Cliched way, that honesty is the best policy. I’m in no place to judge whichever modern-day prophet or philosopher said this, but it seems to have stuck to contemporary society. But  maybe honesty really isn’t the best policy. I know people say “if my partner was cheating on me, i’d rather know” but as poet Thomas Gray said: “Ignorance is bliss”. This makes more sense to me, because if a life altering thing was being kept from me, like above, a partner was cheating on me, i’d rather not know.

“No news is good news” Gloria Borger.

Published in: on July 10, 2010 at 12:24 am  Leave a Comment  
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