“New?” Ummm, something you guys want to tell us?

We continue our challenge of “around the corner.” This email dropped Jan. 25. The NCAA Tournament starts March 14. That’s 48 days. Seven weeks. Nearly two months. Again we ask: How close must something be to be “around the corner?” Readers?

For the operators of this hotel, “Men’s Room” just didn’t look right. So they took the awkward step of scratching out the apostrophe. You can see the space. But Men’s is correct. It’s not Mens,’ because Men already is plural. And it sure isn’t just Mens. To aggravate things, the operators decided that on the other side of the alcove, Women’s was just fine. Go figure.

You do a great job making chairs, why don’t you make sure to end sentences in periods, don’t end a sentence in a comma, thank you.

Everyday is an adjective meaning common, which probably isn’t what you intended. The sign suggests breakfast gets interesting only after 10:30 a.m. (It actually goes away after 10:30 a.m.) No. You want folks to come to your fast-food place for a great breakfast every day!
Also, this place’s do-it-yourself ordering kiosk had a button to checkout. Should it say check out? This is a judgment call, because checkout is a noun for a place to check out, so maybe that’s what they meant.
One more item: while the place spells breakfast right on this big sign, on a smaller sign out front, it spells it break fast. While yes, the definition of breakfast is in fact, breaking a fast, we suspect you didn’t mean that. A loyal reader pointed out the folks behind the sign might have been trying to be clever, as in accentuating “fast.” We aren’t so sure. Note: You might spot these goofs yourselves. This is a chain with locations across North America. Remember, Grammar Police: if you see something, send it in!

And we go to the video archives for Segment 37: Homophones! https://youtu.be/IbiDXmT8y8w

Items before the Assizes:
Oyez, Oyez, Oyez! On the docket:
Longtime reader and loyal Grammar Police contributor Dr. Baruch Kahana submits this newspaper headline from the Feb. 13, 2023, tragedy at Michigan State University: “Three dead, multiple injured.” He asks the Rules Committee to distinguish between multiple and many.
The Modern Language Association of America’s MLA Style Center suggests “many” for things happening over time and “multiple” for things that happen at the same time. So, “many shootings in 2022” but “multiple injured at Michigan State.”
The Rules Committee’s Lou Ann Frala says:
“While I can accept the MLA’s ruling, I have to say ‘multiple injured’ looks wrong. It grates on the ears. If the number of injured was not known or not revealed, I understand the hedging, but my immediate sense would be that “many injured” would be preferable.”

Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong" features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police.” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, menus, TV news graphics, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we properly can credit you. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com

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NOTE: Eliot and Lou Ann are available for speaking engagements, and can travel. Reach us through the comments section. Just think of all of your employees getting back to work on a Monday, their heads filled with all the ways we’ve shown them to be better communicators!