Friday, October 19, 2007

please refrain

Wow. The comma is the only punctuation on this sign that makes any sense. Without the parentheses, it could be a really lame bathroom slogan, I guess. With them, it's just crazy. Good catch, Clare.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, aside from the complete lack of reason for the quotes or parentheses, who in the world thought it was a good idea to put the closing quote inside the closing parenthesis? That doesn't make sense even if you accepted quotes and parentheses as viable means to express emphasis (which, you know, they really aren't).

Ma®ía Pastora said...

What a great blog!

I really have a lot of fun!

Best!

Hayley said...

It makes it seem less of a polite notice. This probably isn't particularly tasteful being as the lady in question is no longer with us, but my nan always used to write "Happy Birthday" on my cards. It came across as almost rude - "uh, yeah, well, "happy birthday", like I care". (Can you actually put quotation marks inside of quotation marks?)

harold said...

you made blogger buzz, congrats, great blog, added "your blog" to myne....

sandwiches rule!

Anonymous said...

I am really surprised. How the best idea you make this blog with title "unnecessary" quotation marks! he he

Good luck.

jspencer said...

So wrong it's right!

Anonymous said...

That sign totally reminds me of a song with one of those overly-long parenthetical titles:

Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)

Bang A Gong (Get It On)

Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long Long Time)

jspencer said...

Maybe it IS one of those songs!! Would explain the quotes (maybe)

Mostly Jessica said...

Didn't they also spell Minimize wrong?

Anonymous said...

I wish I knew where this was--what kind of bathroom, what country, etc. It's funny, but not quite as funny if it's just from China or some other place where the author simply didn't understand English & punctuation very well.

Hayley: Single quotes should be used for quotations within (double) quotes.

Ron & Jessica: No, it's not spelled wrong. It should be "minimise". Unfortunately, most all Americans don't know how to spell at all and get it wrong. The sign was probably written by someone who learned proper (British) English.

jspencer said...

^
it's actually just the British spelling, not that Americans are wrong. There's a difference.

Lara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lara said...

Yet we wonder why the Japanese and basically every other country in the world is beating our pants off when it comes to education. Clearly the ignorance level in our country is climbing ever higher....unbelievable!!

Great Blog!!!

LRS
: )

Joanne said...

These are really funny! It sure is fun to read these.

Masaru Higashi (東 勝る) said...

don't tell me it's from an English spoken country.. it's an absolutely odd mistakes. sorry if my words are harsh.

bethany said...

Fazil, I see you are studying in an english speaking country. Just FYI, "odd" is not a harsh term. But I do believe this sign was found in the US. Not positive.

Anonymous said...

pretty amazing. i keep getting distracted by this site. i should be studying! thanks for the fun photos!

Oregongirl82 said...

Eeek ... I can hardly even read this sign with all the crazy, senseless punctuation! I love checking out your site; it makes me smile every time :)

stocknuke said...

i hv one for this guy

"In order to stop people frm having cardiac arrests"
(please remove ur sign before anybody who takes a dump reads this)

Risa x0x said...

very confusing. and somehow, it's sadly funny.

Clare said...

Just a quick note to confirm (or refute) various suppositions: this notice was found in the UK, in an environment where the perpetrators have no reasonable excuse.

Clare