Oh, that’s probably on purpose. You’re supposed to read “cheapest” steak in town and order the best “cat.”
Some signs are so bad that I think they are a adorable. An old shoe cobbler down the street closed up his shop last month (like a real, old fashioned cobbler – he had a white handle bar mystache that made him look like a walrus). The sign in his window said: “Store closed for retirament.” (And he started running out of space so the end half of “retirament” was squished together.) It was adorable. His first language was also not English, so no one batted an eye. I thought it was really cute because the bright orange sign had so much of his personality in it. His sign made me smile.
“Shave ice” is correct. It was so named by an iced cream shop on the North Shore of Oahu. Islanders hate being corrected on this point by off-islanders, as if only the latter know how to spell and must “teach” the former.
1.) I both apologized and admitted (TWICE) that it was stupid.
2.) In several OTHER current and recent threads, posters other than me thoughlessly included remarks disparaging to overweight people, and not ONE SINGLE ONE of them rated a screaming “F**K YOU” in response.
3.) Is it your intention, DESPITE the fact that I apologized and admitted my mistake (FOUR times now!!) to continually BERATE, CHASTISE and paint me as evil from here til doomsday?
4.) For what reason is it unacceptable to you for a person to also include the reasons they were being stupid as part of their post (I see it all the time in here!!!)?
At what point do you accept a person’s apology and admission of error and stop being a snot to them?
Re: your quote “a clue here, Sunshine, some of us would never make that ‘mistake’ of using the word, fat because it is not part of our thought processes to judge fat people that way.”
Oh, MY mistake, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was in the presence of a person who has never made an error when speaking with others!!!
Now I get it. You are perfect in every way, and anyone that dares err in your presence is cast forever into your black book never to redeem themselves.
Depends on the client the “style” of technical writing in which the author is producing the document.
Engineering/geologist reporting style calls for the darn references to be all lowercase (yes even proper nouns) with the exception of the first word in the reference.
It looks terrible, but for some reason that’s what “they” (some ancient civil engineers maybe?) decided as the appropriate style.
For technical documents in the environmental field the “big words” in a title get caps and the “little words” don’t.
For instance “Site Investigation and Characterization”.
Hey, I just follow the rules. The client would be cranky otherwise.
CanvasShoes: Your apology isn’t being accepted because it lacks sincerity. See, a real apology would be, “Oh, gosh I’m sorry. I was really tired when I wrote that and wasn’t thinking clearly. Please forgive me.” An apology that starts off with, “Perhaps, giving a person the benefit of the doubt first before flying off the handle and screaming the ole’ “F” word at them?” isn’t an apology, it’s a justification. For that matter, it’s not even a complete sentence.
Well, it appears I have put my foot in it again. My apologies to all islanders. Please attribute my goof to ignorance rather than stupidity. (Ignorance, at least, can be cured by an application of knowledge.) I appreciate the new information.
But I do reserve the right to be cheesed off at people who misuse “it’s” as a possessive.
2trew is my new hero. I would never have the sand to actually correct someone’s sign, though I might mention the matter to them.
Right. What he said. English evolves. Some usage changes are good, some cater to the not fully literate. Some dudes really think there is a “word police”- there isn’t- and thus, you are not deputized.
As to the 3 rants given- “alot” is not nessesary. No need for this change. “like” would be Ok in slangy speach, not in writing. But “iceD” as opposed to “ice”? This change is usage was actually a good thing, it is easier to pronounce, and the meaning is clear. Insisting others use “iceD” is indeed- “anal”.
Hey!! I’mma Word Kop, ya know? Like I past the test, ya know? I got like a peace a paper tellin so, ya know? Anyways, I like done good onna test, ya know? I’m like gonna tell Marcie when she comes home.
… Er, I see nothing unusual with your example. It’s standard. If you wrote “The site Investigation and Characterization” with a lower case “s,” for “site” then you’d be writing like my co-workers.
Where I’m working, it isn’t technical writing. In our case, we are using just plain, old, run-of-the-mill, standard titles. They have been informed of precisely which style guide they should be using. Nevertheless, I still have people handing over documents in which all the titles are strangely formatted with so that all “little words” (four letters or less) are not capitalized, but the “big words” (five letters or more) are capitalized.
Example:
If they wrote out some classic titles, you’d likely see
As you like it, One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest or Orwell’s Animal farm.
See, I would have thought a blurted “I’m sorry” would have been what would have sounded insincere, hence the rest of my post.
I should have been more thoughtful when typing and I am sorry.
A second, separate issue is:
Your reaction to my mistake was over the top, regardless of whether I apologized “correctly” or not.
Screaming “F**K YOU” at me, when others who made similar remarks in other posts and were told they were wrong in a reasonable way (a way that allowed for interraction, communication and correction of their mistake) IS overreacting, particularly based on aforementioned similar reactions to my fellow “perps”.
I’m not sure the apology is necessary. There’s no way that everyone can be familiar with every little regional colloquialism in English usage, and your grammatical correction was perfectly understandable.
Even the purveyors of this cool treat concede that the term is somewhat counter-intuitive:
Okay, still not feeling the sincerity here. Three things you might want to take into account:
I didn’t scream at you. I didn’t even use an exclamation mark. In the words of the great Walter Sobchak, “'Calmer than you are, Dude.”
You acted like an asshole. Accidentally, so you say, although I find that hard to believe. You made a clear and unambiguous statement wherein you said that being fat is the same as being unwashed and illiterate. You don’t get to dictate how much I’m allowed to be pissed off at you for that.
“Everyone else is doing it” is not a valid excuse. What are you, six? Grow up and start taking responsibility for your own actions.
I’m more than willing to accept an apology. But I’m not going to accept one that consists of twice as much whining and finger-wagging as it does genuine contriteness. I’d suggest you try again, but watching you dig yourself into a deeper and deeper pit is just painful. Instead, I advise you to shut up and slink away and hope everyone forgets all about this. We probably will. We get a dozen or more new assholes a week around here; you’re nothing special.
I’m not a dude. I’m not a dudette, I’m just a plain ordinary woman.
I admitted that, and am STILL admitting that.
Total misquote here. I did NOT say “everyone is doing it” as in everyone should be allowed to disparage fat people, and if that’s what you got from that, you didnt’ read my post.
I said that others who made the same mistake were not responded to in the same way. In other words, rather than addressing my specific screw up (i.e., HEY! Shoes, that’s a rotten and stupid thing to say, what is wrong with you??? etc), you just punched me in the face (figuratively speaking) and went on about your business.
I haven’t asked to be treated like “anything special”. There are TWO issues here, and on one of them you are correct. An apology should and will be made aside from my complaint.
Look, the punishment did NOT fit the crime. Period.
“F**K you” is a violent, hateful verbal/written assault.
Is it your SOP to go around verbally sucker-punching anyone within your vicinity who happens to screw up?
I apologize for my disparaging statement regarding overweight people. It may surprise you to know that I am a fitness professional. I am a PE instructor at a college and some additional fitness facilities. I help people with their fitness goals all the time, and part of that is in recognizing, assisting, and being patient with the severe emotional difficulties people face when struggling with this issue. I’ve faced it myself.
As such I know that there is a lot more to it than just “getting to the gym” or the useless phrase “exercise and eat right”.
And yes, though this got lost in the shuffle of the other issue, I DID specifically come looking for this thread even after the fact because I wanted to find it and post an apology regarding my statement.
Violent, hateful assault? Are you out of your tiny little mind? Being beaten by a baseball bat is a violent assault. Being run down by a car is a violent assault. Being told to fuck off is a mild rebuke, at best. If you can’t spot the difference, you should find somewhere else to play.
And please, tell me, how does one “accidentally” compare fat people to a pack of unread slobs? Where’s the typo in what you wrote that, once corrected, makes your statement magically non-offensive? I get the feeling you’re not so much sorry for the insult as you are for opening your mouth and letting people know how you really feel. Well, whatever. I see you’ve apologized again, only now I’ve got “severe emotional problems” because I’m fat. Y’know what? Please stop apologizing to me. I’m tired of being insulted.
Ah, I get it now. You are of the jaded variety that considers this profanity no more than a “gosh darn you”. It’s a verbally abusive assault.
I didn’t say it was violent itself, I said it was a violent hateful verbal/written PHRASE. It is.
What the HELL are you talking about? What “typo” did I say I made? Where did I say I “accidentally” did anything? And where did I say that my mistake merely needed to be corrected? And where the HELL did I say you had “severe emotional PROBLEMS”? You have really gone overboard in interpreting my words for me.
Uhhhhh! (throws hands up in air, EXASPERATED). GEEEEEEEEEEEZ! You are just looking at every blasted thing I say Just LOOKING to be mad at me.
I did NOT in any way say overweight people have severe emotional problems. I SAID the severe emotional difficulties they FACE. Meaning once they decide, IF they decide to try to change things, and as I said IN that same paragraph in so far as me assisting them. Also, as in the medical community is more and more coming to recognize the connection between the psyche and weight gain/loss etc.
That is NOT to say you or any other overweight person is or has an emotional problem because they are overweight.
Good LORD!!!
You gotcher wish, I promise this horrid stupid little snowflake will never EVER attempt to resolve this with you ever again.
Jesus H. Christ. Grow a fucking spine, you miserable, whiney little shit. If you can’t figure out the difference between an abusive assault and being cussed out by a stranger over the Internet, it’s a goddamned wonder you don’t melt into a puddle of blubbering self-pity everytime you step out of your front door.