Archive for April, 2008

it takes all kinds

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008


so a friend of mine checked out our website when i told him it was up and in addition to the myriad of comments he made about all of our idiosyncrasies he mentioned that jana had it backwards. she put her shoes on in the wrong order. it should be right before left, not left before right.

he then regaled me with a tale of a week in junior high when a “highly scientific experiment” was conducted in which he put his left shoe on first every day that week and received detention every day!

not that i am sane by any account, i constantly babble on about things that make my friends eyes glaze over (mostly fonts and design/coding terms), but two people being so adamant about which order to put their shoes on just makes me wonder who else is out there in the world. and in case you hadn’t noticed, one of my little quirks is my utter loathing of capital letters.

later.

I’m SO over…

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

I am SO over “over.” It’s gotten to the point where I can’t get through an evening of primetime television without bearing witness to this grammatical infraction. And to make matters worse, I’ve developed an unconscious tick. When I hear the word “over” misused, I correct the grammar IN MY OWN HEAD! (You can stop right there. You don’t have to tell me. I am fully aware of how strange this is. I can’t help it, it just pops in there.)

We all have our pet peeves and this is mine: When dealing with quantities, the use of “over” is incorrect. To say, “I sat in traffic for over 45 minutes,” is WRONG. The correct statement is, “I sat in traffic for more than 45 minutes.” More than!

C’mon people! Did we all forget the fifth grade? I’m continually blown away by how misused “over” has become. I see it in everything from television and print ads to casual conversation, and it all drives me crazy! I’m on a mission to rid the English language of such infractions. Screaming at the television – out loud or in my head – only goes so far. I need help from the rest of the English speaking population.

And for the record, the same rule of quantities applies to “less” and “fewer.” Take a look around the grocery store and you’ll understand my panic attacks. “Less carbohydrates” = incorrect; “Fewer carbohydrates” = correct.

<Deep breath in, deep breath out and repeat.> OK, I think I’m starting to feel better now.

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