While at the mall today, I saw a vehicle with a memoir on the back window. I know you've seen those, too. They read something like, "In Memory Of Little Bill, 1967-2009." My beef with today's car was the lack of grammar. It boldly declared, "Ride On Chris, 1977-2010."
People, a comma makes a huge difference. H-U-G-E. I mean, "Ride On, Chris" is a nice sentiment to remember someone who was a go-getter in life. But "Ride On Chris" is something that makes for awkward explaining to small children.
We will not even begin to talk about the capitalization of all the words.
Benches are placed along the bike trail that I love so much, and the majority of them have been donated by families in memory of someone they love. There are a lot of "In Memory of's," but the ones that irk me are the inappropriate quotations. This is the correct use of quotations:
In Memory of William "Bill" MurrayBut things like:
"In Memory of Mary Burke"makes me twitchy. Was she really beloved? Is it really in her memory? How can one tell with all those quotation marks? And really, I can't be twitchy while biking because I'm not that great of a biker yet.
"A Beloved Sister, Friend, Aunt"
People, grammar makes a huge difference. Is it asking too much to simply follow the rules?
5 comments:
I'm still dying a bit inside at that truck: If its too loud your to old. Let's see what's missing: 1 comma, and the correct uses of the words you're and too. OY VEY! I'm not a grammar nazi, but that makes me shudder and clench my insides in agony.
This makes me think of the sign on Pinterest that says
Let's eat Grandpa
Let's eat, Grandpa
I giggle every time I see it.
I love you. The end.
Signed, the grammar nazi
Glad to see that we're in good company. I am writing this in fear of making a mistake, by the way.
I don't know what happened to grammar. When I was in school, we HAD to learn it. And if you wrote an essay or answered a question on a test - even if it wasn't in English class - you got points off for bad grammar/spelling, etc. Now, I see TEACHERS writing stuff of facebook like "your welcome" It's frustrating!
And while there are a few grammar rules that are obscure and hard to learn, most are pretty easy. My 3rd grade teacher taught us a bunch of shortcuts to remember things like I vs me, who vs whom, desert vs dessert and I still remember them.
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