Spotting luggage …

It’s back … fun with headlines!

Spotted (ha ha) today in wikiHow:

How to Make Luggage Easier to Spot

(click here for the real story)

What comes to your mind?

Here’s what came to ours:

Three-sided story …

This post is based on a true story … really!

There was an elderly, widowed 9th grade algebra teacher in Alabama, who, as a result of the years and the students she had to put up with, became convinced that she was an equilateral triangle.  When she was cornered, she always looked for a new angle, in her own way of circular thinking she could never measure up. She treated everyone equilaterally, until someone called her a square. Although this may have been an acute observation, it was not right. The Pythagorean who made this accusation did not realize that it was actually an obtuse theorem. The teacher was put on a plane, sent away and committed for her polygonous belief. Many thought that being institutionalized would scalene down her parallelanoia, however, it must have been geometrically impossible to solve that equation. To sum up … there is good news and bad news. The good news is that this teacher was cured of believing she was a triangle. The bad news: in a special, isoscelestic, 180° turn, she now thinks she is trapped inside a triangle. Does that mean that she is trapezoid?

Note: Puns have been added to protect the insanely and algebraically innocent.

Artwork by Lauren.

Saving daylight …

We just want to note this interesting (and timely) grammar tip from WebExhibits:

Daylight Saving Time

Spelling and grammar

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time. Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Because of this, it would be more accurate to refer to DST as daylight-saving time. Similar examples would be a mind-expanding book or a man-eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an ’s’) flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.

Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, and Daylight Time Shifting more accurate, but neither is politically desirable.

 Source: WebExhibits: Daylight Saving Time

Terms & Conditions …

We have been traveling a lot recently. For some reason, that seems to make us accutely aware of the widespread and interesting usage of the conditional tense. This sparked an idea for a new blog post, so here goes …

conditional: Grammar. (of a sentence, clause, mood, or word) involving or expressing a condition, as the first clause in the sentence If it rains, he won’t go.

We like this explanation from LEO Network:

The conditional tense says that an action is reliant on something else. The two most common conditionals are real and unreal, they are sometimes called if-clauses.

The real conditional (often named 1st Conditional or Conditional Type I) describes situations based on fact.

The unreal conditional (often named 2nd Conditional or Conditional Type II) describes unreal or imaginary situations.

There is also what we call the 3rd conditional (often named Conditional Type III), used to express no possibility of something having happened in the past, and the 0 conditional (often called the zero conditional), used to express absolute certainty.

Unless you are studying English to pass an exam or test don’t try to remember the types, just learn the structure so that you know how to express the meaning conveyed by each type.

Note! If the ‘if’ clause comes first, a comma is usually used. If the “if” clause comes second, there is no need for a comma.”

 

We mentioned “interesting usage.” Take a look at the following examples and have a chuckle:

In a restaurant, have you ever heard your server say something like this?

If you need anything, my name is …

That’s great. However, what is your name if I don’t need anything?

 

 If you’re ready to order, I’ll be over there …

 So, if I’m not ready to order, where will you be?

 

When conversing with friends or colleagues …

If I don’t see you, have a good trip/holiday/weekend …

Alright, if you do see me, do you want me to have a bad time?

 

 

 

On an airplane …

If you are unfamiliar with the (insert almost any airport name here) airport, there is a diagram in the in-flight magazine …

This one is puzzling because we are very familliar with the mentioned airport. Is there still a diagram in the magazine?

 

Now, IF you have other examples to share, please feel free to comment!

 

Sources: Dictionary.com, Learn English, American Airlines Flight Attendant announcements.

Less is not always more …

When will folks ever learn the “less-on”?? The “less vs. fewer” debate rages on. Case in point:

Citi is running a promo. It starts out fine, but quickly grates on grammarians with the phrase …

“Less trees being cut down …”

OK, everybody repeat after us …

I will use “less” for amounts that cannot be counted as discrete items such as, water, sunshine, and money.

I will use “fewer” for numbers of items that can be counted as discrete items, such as, drops of water, rays of sunshine, dollar bills, and … of course, trees!

Get it? Got it. Good!

See also our previous post: Limit less …

Dashing English – - -

Normally, we don’t cross-post, however, here is an exception.

We poke fun at so many wikiHow entries that we thought it only fair to call upon a well-written and grammar-related post from its:

Home > Categories > Education and Communications > Subjects > English > English Grammar > Punctuation section.

Enjoy the following:

                       

How to Use a Dash in an English Sentence

Source: wikiHow.com

Nouns gone bad … properly

Here are two that have given rise to a new category of “Nouns gone bad …“

Current collection of Nouns gone bad … properly:

• Google(d)
• Taser(ed)
• Sharpie(d)
• Jones(ing)
• SPAM(med)

We are not likely to be able to keep up with this trend: Proper nouns being turned into verbs.

Thanks Google!

Please see our other posts in this series and submit your entries.

• Nouns gone bad …
• Nouns gone bad … sequeled 
• Badverbs … cousins to nouns gone bad
• Verbalized …
• SPAM: honorary noun gone bad …

Balancing act …

Today’s fun with headlines …

The Buffalo New York newspaper, BusinessFirst, ran this news headline:

“Sotomayor praised for balance”

(click here for the real story)

What comes to your mind?

Here’s what came to ours:

Marinas rule …

We have always loved this sign! It is posted at the Hotel Coral & Marina in Ensenada, Mexico. Take a look and enjoy the grammar and the sentiments:

(click here to see a larger image of the sign)

Lost in translation …

We love this … obviously translated into English from some other language … enjoy!

Seen on a Health and Beauty Web site:

“You have to be on fire 3500 MORE calories than you eat, to lose 1 pound of fat. Consequently how a lot of total calories you would require to burn would depend on your caloric eating. Characteristically though, an important person eating correct and exercising frequently can lose 1 – 2 lbs a week with refusal difficulty. I weighed in my opinion before I leaved into a sauna and evaluated 148.8. I went into the sauna for concerning 10 minutes, and weighed for my part behind, I after that weighed 147.6. There single pound, other than if you desire to lose a few weight do a lot of cardio action, somewhat than exciting weights. Losing 1-2 pounds shouldn’t be that tough. I would create yourself off simple though and occupation your weigh up so your body is second-hand to it and you won’t totally tire out yourself and weak. To misplace 1 pound per week you require taking in 500 calories a smaller amount, whether by dropping your food, picking enhanced choices or in grouping with exercise. To mislay 2 pounds per week you require doing the similar, but 1000 calorie decrease per day. Unless you go after a thermo genie diet similar to Kinkiness and then you drop much earlier than the 3500 calorie regulation allows.”

Then, a Twitter follower sent us a twitpic that we just had to include in this post:

Thanks to @albertart who says: “I saw this outside a ramen restaurant when I was in LA.”

Gotta love it!