Saturday 24 September 2011

Heavens to Murgatroyd

I agree with the comment on this picture (the picture's quite flattering though).

I Had a Good Job But I Left

I may be revealing a streak of incipient racism, but it seems to me that the person who wrote this caption may have confused their left with their right:

Friday 16 September 2011

One Day

I loved the novel One Day but it was a touch and go thing at the start. The sloppy editing almost made me throw the book across the room, although in the end David Nicholls's excellent writing won out.

1. My biggest bugbear was the idiotic and repeated  misuse of the word 'onto':
a. were they planning to climb on the roof of the pub:

 b. was he planning to lie on a map of India:
c.  'I can rely onto' - hmm, sounds just that bit too clingy:



2. Then there was the editorial decision to replace 'all right' with 'alright', (but this I know is a losing battle; alright is winning, but I still think it's wrong):



3. There were also the irritating departures from grammar as we know it:

a. 'everyone seem to know':

b.  "Yes, that's that what I meant":


4. Finally, there was the parenthetic dash that was left dangling, left permanently without its partner:

Thursday 15 September 2011

Noblesse Oblige

I don't think the Duchess of Devonshire would stand for this.

Thursday 8 September 2011

Moo

I don't think you can cow to something - you can only cow or be cowed:

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Separate or Unflashy?

Someone on Twitter who goes by the name of Albury Bible Fellowship spotted this in the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://twitter.com/#!/AlburyBF/status/110922350668677120/photo/1/large
Many thanks, Albury, if I may call you that.

Sunday 4 September 2011

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

If you put the word 'death' in a headline, the word 'axed' tends to suggest bloody executions, rather than sackings:


Thursday 1 September 2011

Ancient Potato

I like the idea of our former Prime Minister sprouting (I've always thought he looked a bit of an ear- and nose-hair kind of man). However, I think the word the author was searching for was actually 'spout':


Strained Relations

When did daughters stop being part of the family:


Enough Articles

Since when did 'enough' take an article:

And party figures ought to be furious that Ms Jackson chose to refer the Thomson affair, ( I should point out, by the way, that I'm talking about verb tenses rather than principles.)

Miracle in the ACT

These people, whose picture appeared in the Canberra Times, really don't look particularly old, but it seems they have a descendant who participated in World War I: