I was out shopping today with Katherine and Quinn, and I spotted the following sign, which was proofread neither for grammar nor for irony. Perhaps Mrs. Miller (neé Noland), my high school English teacher, had too much influence over me in my formative years, but I’ve got a nearly reflexive compulsion to proofread everything I see, particularly signage. For some reason, sign makers in particular seem afflicted with two grammatical maladies: the “gratuitous” use of quotation marks and the tendency to use the apostrophe when there is no possessive in sight.
December 11, 2004