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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Black Mark Bloopers


In the book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, author Lynne Truss uses her sharp wit to discuss the “disastrous state of punctuation in the modern world.” (Amazon.com)

The book’s cover features a drawing of a gun-wielding panda bear. And then inside, the book explains that the bear—thanks to some misplaced punctuation—“Eats, shoots, and leaves.”

It’s a hilarious look at the difference a black mark makes. And so, just for fun, I thought I’d list a few of the "black mark bloopers" I’ve seen lately.

Seen on a local massage therapist’s advertisement: Two Massage’s For the Price of One
Seen on a Christmas card: Love, The Taylor’s
Seen on Lorelei Gilmore’s T-shirt on an episode of Gilmore Girls (the season in the purple box): Love the One Your With
Seen in a high school yearbook: Love, you’re friend Janet
Seen in an Iowa Airport: See photo above found on passiveagressivenotes.com

So, tell me, have you seen any black mark bloopers lately? Let's get a list going.

6 comments:

Robyn Heirtzler said...

I've read parts of that book and got the biggest kick out of it! Did you know they make a children's version too? My daughters absolutely loved it, and the pictures clearly demonstrate the difference between proper and improper comma placement.

Amanda said...

There are entire blogs out there devoted to this sort of thing. My favorite is the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks.

Melanie Jacobson said...

Wow. When even the hyperliterate Gilmore Girls get it wrong, what hope is there for the rest of us? Since I watch that show on the Family Channel everyday, I'm going to keep an eye out. It will be my own personal Where's Waldo moment.

Julie Wright said...

I was applying for an editor job yesterday. On the application That insisted I needed amazing grammar skills was this:

"You're grammar skills must be excellent in order to be hired for this position."

I didn't fill out the whole application. Do I rally want to work for a company with such double standards?

Amanda said...

Julie, that's hillarious.

Janette Rallison said...

I just saw an add for facials where the headline was:

To much fun in the sun this summer?

I wasn't sure if it was a question or a toast.