On the menu
theastrolab.com
Another food product contaminated with an apostrophe! Time to call the health department? How about Stir-frys. Yep. Looks wrong. But it’s right.
Warning: objectionable material!
Well, yeah, the waiter said sheepishly. Should be “fried goat cheese balls.”
(Did you get the “sheepishly” pun?)
Redundant redundancy alert! “Publicly reveal” is the same as “reveal.”
Kara Egizi
Watch that apostrophe! There’s more than one economist here. It’s economists’. (Joke: Economists have successfully predicted eight of the last five recessions!)
Melanie Mena
OK. Everyone knows what the writer meant. But it looks dumb. Get it right! Let’s cure the world of misplaced modifiers. Please! The principal doesn’t own the campus. Correct: “Two loaded guns belonging to XXX Academy principal found on campus.”
We covered this hyphen goof in our May 8 section on sports. The hyphen substitutes for “to.” So this reads, “between June 6 to June 9.” You can omit “between.” Really. (P.S.: use a colon after “postmaster” rather than a comma.)
We’ve covered this as well, in our September 2021 segment. This headline says all school intruders are different. Clearly that’s not true. Some intruders are alike. Should be: “Not all school intruders are alike.”
And we go to the video for Segment 19: Everyone Still Doesn’t Like Grammar. https://youtu.be/EpaisXp1J0s
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!