Well, I had another foot-in-mouth moment last night. It was my daughter's homecoming game, and of course I had to go since the marching band was also performing (She'd have killed me dead otherwise!)
Our team actually slaughtered the opponents, 62 to 13, the kind of score I'm used to seeing in reverse!
Anyway, I was walking up to the ticket booth and noticed a bunch of stands set up selling merchandise for school spirit. I had no intentions of buying anything, but one sign caught my attention. It advertised, among other things, pom-poms, garters, and "neckless" (!)
I literally busted out laughing and asked the lady manning the table, while pointing at the sign, "Who the heck made that sign?!"
She replied, beaming, "My daughter!"
Oh.
I said, trying to stifle my snickers, "She spelled "necklaces" wrong. I actually have a neck!" (Yes, that was mean, I know.)
The mom came around the table and spelled out, "N-E-C-K-L-E-S-S... Oh, she forgot the "E-S" at the end to make it plural! Ha-ha-ha-ha!"
Erm. Okay.
The apple obviously did not have far to go in this family.
I forked over two bucks and got some necklaces. It was the least I could do.
17 comments:
Head
Desk
Repeatedly
Still getting past trying past a McDonalds in a more run down part of Cleveland last year on my way to the freeway. On the sign. - Tomorrow is Thanksgivin. We Be Closed.
I kid you not.
I will tell you what I think!
The younger people of today are narcissistic.
It has become commonplace, beginning in elementary school, to accomodate their needs to the fullest extent. We are to compliment not criticize everything the little critters do. Just keep everyone happy so that lawsuits do not happen
This leads the child to believe that he cannot be told no. Adults are scared of children, and children know this. School is a nightmare for teachers and parents who really try.
Years go by and we are producing kids who become parents like the neckless lady.
I wonder if the mother later realized her and her daughter's, mistake and felt like the idiots they obviously are?
DN, I'm not surprised you feel that way. As a matter of fact, since you're an educator, it's probably a hundred times worse than how I felt!
Brigid, now that's just truly embarrassing. What amazes me is that no one calls these misspellers out! Ever. Except me with my foot-in-mouth-itis!
Lee, I agree with you. It's a shame, isn't it? But none of that bullshit cuts the mustard in my house! I rag on my kids (playfully!) all the time when they make errors in pronunciation or grammar, and believe me, they feel free to do the same to me! Heck, Silver and I are editors for each other. As Silver put it when I told her about "neckless", "I don't think the daughter will do well on her SATs!"
Chuck, I bet you anything they were as clueless at the end of the day as they were at the beginning. Sad, isn't it?
I forked over two bucks and got some necklaces. It was the least I could do.
You're SUCH a good person, Christina! And Good On Ya for not carrying around a marker and making spontaneous corrections to badly-done signs, too.
There's a blog out there somewhere that encourages readers to send in photos of Bad English... I can't, for the life of me, remember its name and I didn't bookmark it. I should have, coz it's hilarious.
Thanks, Buck!
Well, there's always Failblog. It's not only bad English, but just about anything stupid, too.
People just... amaze me. And not always in a good way!
Were you looking for this:
http://engrishfunny.com/
mortifying!
passing through little rock once, I stopped at a popeye's chicken drive-through (sorry, that is drive-thru these days, innit?) but a hand lettered note taped to the order board indicated they were closed due to "power failer."
um, quite!
C, you ARE a nice person! I, OTOH, would have done what Buck said a Mean person would do. In fact, I HAVE corrected mis-spellings on forms I was to complete and return to supposed professionals.
My daughter and a friend of hers once corrected the spelling of graffitti that was NOT complementary to their character, persons and family history. Yeah, she's to graduate in May. Sh'll be looking for a job as an English teacher, then. My Angel Baby Girl also corrected the spelling and grammar in a love letter she received. THEN she returned it to the would-be suitor.
I have NO idea where she gets this propensity. I haven't lost any of mine.
My sister in law in Tennessee constantly makes mistakes on her MySpace updates and her page. Having been raised in a articulate household, it is torture for me to read her updates and messages to me and not correct her. I have been told that makes me sound condescending......
I just thought it made me sound like a normal person.
somebody ought to go through the 60 or so comments i make a day and if spelling were to keep me off blogs, or bogs, i would never have one nice forgiving person in my life
Sonja... No, that ain't the one I was thinking of, but it IS a good one! "Engrish" always cracks me up, and I say this as a person who spent about five years (or so) in Japan. Engrish was really bad back in the '60s and '70s... more so than today, if you can believe that.
The blog I'm thinking of is run by a real, bona-fide English teacher. I spent waaaay too much time trying to find it this weekend! Unsuccessfully, I should add.
Sonja, English isn't even your first language, and I bet your English grammar is better than that of 99.9% of American's out there!
Phlegmmy, a "failer", to be sure!
Holly, I just can't do stuff like that. Though I have corrected errors in textbooks, etc! I'm the first to admit my punctuation is far from stellar, so I try to have mercy on the spelling-challenged out there. That doesn't mean I won't laugh...
Blondie, I think how your assistance is perceived depends totally on the recipient! I, for example, will always be grateful for any corrections.
Putz, your idiosyncrasies of spelling and grammar are just part of what makes you so special! I wouldn't worry about them at all, if I were you. You are a consistent commenter and I always look forward to hearing what you have to say!
Buck, don't you just hate it when you can't find what you're looking for on-line? Drives me up the WALL!
Failer to communicate!
O.M.G. The kid is not the one killing me here, it's the mom. Egad.
True, the mom was scary!
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