chronic.linguist

August 13, 2006

…when it comes to written language, that is.

Sadly, it is increasingly difficult for us sticklers to find refuge from offsensive usage offenses.

Minutes after arriving in Montana via the not-so-sprawling Billings airport (it has 6 gates), I was minding my own business by the baggage claim, only to be assaulted by linguistic turmoil in the signage: a violent subject-verb disagreement, only to be outdone by two apostorphe atrocities that would make Lynne Truss blush1:

Later, an otherwise glorious wooded trail in Yellowstone was marred by this affront to proper punctuators everywhere:

And to think that I spent my vacation in ground zero of a linguistic insurgency!

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