Sunday, January 04, 2009

Grammar nerds Unite!

My friend Matt (not to be confused with my husband) bought me a book called Eats, Shoots & Leaves for Christmas... and since I know there are a few grammar nerds out there who would appreciate this book, I'm posting part of introduction to intrigue you:
Either this will ring bells for you, or it won't. A printed banner has appeared on the concourse of a petrol station near where I live. 'Come inside,' it says, 'for CD's, VIDEO's, DVD's, and BOOK's.'
If this satanic sprinkling of redundant apostrophes causes no little gasp of horror or quickening of the pulse, you should probably put down this book at once....For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word "Book's" with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker.


I will loan this book out when I have finished, Ashby, if you are interested. ;)

2 comments:

ashby said...

hahahahaha...I love this post.

first, I saw your title, and got really excited, and then, I saw which book you were talking about, and said to myself, 'oh man, I've been meaning to read that book', and THEN I saw my NAME because you KNOW I'm a freakish grammar snob.

I am so, so happy right now!

Mark Owen said...

Maybe one of you grammar nerds could review the song overheads at Ethnos!

Grammar is ok, but please don't become one of those word snobs that corrects people all the time! Ugh!