Everything You Know About English Is Wrong » typography http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/blog1 Cantankerous commentary on what we speak and why we speak it, from Bill Brohaugh Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:01:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 And you can single-quote me on that http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/blog1/2008/08/05/and-you-can-single-quote-me-on-that/ http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/blog1/2008/08/05/and-you-can-single-quote-me-on-that/#comments Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:25:40 +0000 Bill Brohaugh http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/blog1/2008/08/05/and-you-can-single-quote-me-on-that/ I have figured out the real reason American automakers are bleeding red ink—at least for one company. It looks as though the decimal point in figures tallying Ford Motor Company’s losses keeps moving one numeral to the right. Simple explanation: Ford has its punctuation backward. A million in losses? Oops, backward decimal point . . . one digit to the right . . . ten million . . . one more to the right, and a hundred million.

I have proof:

The wayward apostrophe

If Ford can’t control its advertising apostrophes, allowing them to pretend to be single open quotes, how can we possibly expect the company to get the decimal points moving in the right direction? I just hope that the same proofreaders aren’t working to make sure that first gear and reverse are properly labeled.

(If catapostrophes amuse/enrage you, I invite you to tune into the Apostrophe Abuse, apostrophism and Apostrophe Catastrophes blogs. The latter blog features one of the blogosphere’s best slogans: “The Worlds’ Worst. Punctuation;”)

]]> http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/blog1/2008/08/05/and-you-can-single-quote-me-on-that/feed/ 0 Still in my jammies, I’ll be my own Saturday morning cartoon http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/blog1/2008/07/19/still-in-my-jammies-ill-be-my-own-saturday-morning-cartoon/ http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/blog1/2008/07/19/still-in-my-jammies-ill-be-my-own-saturday-morning-cartoon/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:53:31 +0000 Bill Brohaugh http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/blog1/2008/07/19/still-in-my-jammies-ill-be-my-own-saturday-morning-cartoon/ It’s Saturday, I’m lazy, and I’m easily amused (Saturday or not). But it’s not all about me. Likely it’s Saturday, you’re lazy, and you’re also easily amused (or you wouldn’t be here in the first place). So my scathing commentary today is naught but the result of the word/typography/writing-geek in me being tickled by this recent headline:

TREASURY CHIEF PAULSON: FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MAC ‘ADEQUATELY CAPITALIZED’

A true marriage of form and nonsense.

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