=

=

Now, call me a pedant, but “3+4″ is not the same as “5+2″. If someone asks for 3 shirts and 4 skirts and you bring them 5 shirts and 2 skirts, you’ve made a mistake. Whoever wrote this question was writing with a blinkered maths-testing point of view rather than with a human point of view, yet trying to use everyday words. If you’re expecting a maths answer you should use a maths word: “equals”.

Nice of them to show up

I’m a fan of a certain TV show, and I was struck by the online headline of a Times article on 16th April: “Paula and Noorul showed up on The Apprentice“. Oh dear. Could The Times be running their headlines through some naff commercially available grammar checker?

Legoise?

It’s always fun to invent new terms, but is it wise? For example, what would you take it to mean if you were told that something was to be “lego-ised”? (And when you saw the post title did you think it was French, with the “oi” representing a “wa” sound?) Let me know what you think before you have a look at the “answer”.

The Perfect Gift

In Smiths during the Christmas holiday I was surprised to discover that one of their main book categories is “Tragic Life Stories”. (I was looking – in vain – for the Science section.) What’s going on here? Schadenfreude? Simply relief that there are people even worse off than ourselves?

God forbid that there should be a happy ending anywhere…

Good examples

This book almost maintains the fine distinction between between and among…

Funny food

T-shirt English

A couple of examples of Engrish spotted in a department store in Debrecen, Hungary. The first one says: “carefree” in black and ”You are enough, cool. Handsome anol hundred”

Infant-school synecdoche

My daughter’s school newsletter contains the following item:

“Sandwiches.
“If your child brings sandwiches, please ensure that there are no sweets in there.”

“Sandwiches” = “packed lunch”, I presume.

Builders, take note

This caught my eye when I was walking down John Bright Street (in Birmingham city centre) one day a couple of years ago. The space was being used as a canteen by a building firm while they were involved in a big construction project in the street.

Photo parade – in the wild

 Birmingham city centre:

 

BP garage, West Bromwich:

 

 A marque I hadn’t heard of before:

 

Lichfield shop: