Okay, this sign, which appeared in the elevator of my building, is messed up. How many errors can you find? There’s one big one that is common and always peeves me.
(No fair telling me that it’s all okay because, after all, you can understand what it means. Read Pinker’s new book to see the problem with accepting such usage).
There are a few missing hyphens.
It actually took me a couple of reads to see what they were getting at. It is confusing – enforcing of the signs bit!
You’re referring to the enforcement of signs rather than the regulation itself?
Since when can signs be enforced? Surely it is the instructions ON the signs that are to be followed.
Isn’t that just a figure of speech? If you insist on being so pedantic I’ll have to throw the book at you.
Can signs sweep streets?
Only in good weather, apparently.
City and city holidays should not be capitalized. Lots of subject agreement errors. It reads as if the street will receive parking tickets, and the sign will be enforced (rather than the information on the sign.) I am currently reading Pinker’s new book, and recommend it to everyone.
I’ve got Pinker’s book on my shelf in the “to read” pile. I went to see him in Toronto about a month ago and he mentioned something I almost yelled, “Yes!” to. It was to do with putting punctuation inside the quotes when you quote someone. He rightly pointed out that this makes no logic sense, especially if you’ve done any programming. So true & so the reason I screw up all the time with quotations & punctuation!
Oops, I screwed up my email. This is indeed me up there. 🙂
So, what is it, “Yes!” ?
Or, is it, “Yes”! ?
The first one if you’re going to be correct.
This has always bothered me as well. It’s just a stupid rule. The following two sentences have clearly distinct meaning:
a) He said “Yes!”. (He was enthusiastic.)
b) He said “Yes”! (Can you imagine that?)
I’m telling you, it’s easy to think you don’t need a helping hand with grammar and punctuation…until you read Pinker’s book! You’ll enjoy it. It must have been a pleasure to attend one of his talks.
Yes, it was and I brought a friend who didn’t know too much about Steven Pinker but she was a professional medical writer for a long time and is probably the best proofer in the world. She loved the talk and Q&A and is going to borrow his latest book from the library. She and I have similar opinions about grammar.
Do you have similar opinions on tp?
My gramma’s dead 🙁
I have read the book and enjoyed it immensely.
In certain situations, city could be capitalized, if it is a second reference to a specific city name, such as New York City. The city in this case being Chicago, however, indicates that city should not be capitalized.
But of course SF is “The City”. (Never Frisco or San Fran).
Not ‘frisco?
I lived in the SF Bay area for 12 years and nobody remotely local ever called it Frisco. You’d be immediately pegged as a tourist or wannabe🐾🐾
Anyone who calls it “F—co” is obviously a rube, and needs to be set straight. The same goes for “San Fran,” although it’s given a bit more leeway. We San Franciscans don’t take this sort of thing lightly, even if we’ve been exiled to La-la Land.
You can call Los Angeles anything. Nobody down here has a smidgen of civic pride… and rightly so.
…or The City of London…
Yeah, that too.
Of course, but in this case city was not part of a proper noun.
There are also places which capitalize the c in “city” to indicate the administration rather than (say) the geographic area.
They’re also advising the street on how to avoid parking tickets. I’m pretty sure it’s the people who park on the street who want to avoid getting a ticket.
Good luck getting a street to pay a parking ticket.
Or, since we are being precise, it is the people who park their cars on the street who want to avoid getting a ticket.
Perhaps it’s better that they know how to do a good job of cleaning the streets despite producing imperfect signs, rather than the other way round?
In Chicago, a lot of street cleaning is superfluous: a way to get revenue by charging every car $75 for violating the ordinance. They often “clean” the streets when they’re not dirty, and sometimes the signs go up the late afternoon of the day before the ban, so if you don’t see them, you’re screwed.
I think that’s more messed up than the sign is…
Ouch. That’s bad!
I lived in LA for a year stint, and they did that tomfoolery there too. It could take up to a half-an-hour to find a parking place when you had to move, so lots of times I didn’t even try. When I moved out of state, I had at least 6 unpaid parking tickets.
I think their signs were grammatically correct though.
They charge the cars, not the owners?
Isn’t that a bit fastidious? This is only an informal Comments page.
It is pretty persnickety, especially since he is critiquing our gracious host.
In addition to the other stated problems, I wouls hyphenate street cleaning and street sweeping as they are used on the notice.
They should include the year, as signs may be left posted long after their “sell by” date.
The sign,not the message, is enforced on the dates indicated, but only if the weather permits…Huh? How do you enforce just the blank sign material?
The streets scheduled to be swept are going to be issued parking tickets unless they stay out of the way of vehicles during the hours indicated…Huh? Huh?
The schedule itself, not the schedule for sweeping streets,excludes City Holidays. How does it do that?
What is the significance of November 21st and 24th?
Before Thanksgiving?
In addition to the grammar we can pick on – uh I mean critique – the design and messaging:
* Primary message uses condensed font with a drop shadow, making it more difficult to read.
* Secondary message – Is it just Friday and Monday, or is it Friday through Monday?
* Secondary message – Underlining makes it more difficult to read.
* Body uses all bold font making it more difficult to read and diluting the message.
* Body places less importance on messaging that is probably most critical to the user.
* Body message isn’t direct and clear as to why the reader should care (and who should care).
What’s wrong with this sign?! Well, for starters, as,long ago, the Five Man Electric Band made very clear:
“And the sign said, “Long-haired freaky people need not apply”
So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why
He said, “You look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you’ll do”
So I took off my hat, I said, “Imagine that, huh, me workin’ for you”
Whoa, oh, oh
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”
So, as Stan Lee would say, and as I am sure you will agree, “Nuff said”.
So do you shoot the sign or the guy who created it? Very hard to enforce a sign, sweep and schedule and then exclude city holidays.
Considering the zombie population of Chicago (as regularly evidenced by their record turnouts at the polls), it would seem clear that whoever made this sign either was a zombie himself or had previously been so generous as to let a zombie feast on his sweet, delicious braaaaaaaaainnnnnzzzzzzz….
b&
Where’s Daryl Dixon when you need him?
Stuck in a TiVo or between the pages of a comic book….
b&
Daryl Dixon is one of the few main characters of WD that didn’t come from the pages of the comic.
Sorry, my nerdiness shows.
Actually…I had to google the guy’s name just to discover that he’s a character in a TV / comic book franchise I had never heard of….
b&
Aw shucks, and I thought Ben Goren was a Walking Dead fan. 😉
Alas, no. I enjoy zombie stories…but, first, I haven’t done TV in ages and never did comic books…and, second, I tend to like zombie stories in small doses.
b&
This series is more about the characters than the zombies & I suspect that is why it has such a following. Sort of like how lots of non science fiction types liked Battlestar Galactica.
That’s another series I’ve heard great things about but never watched / downloaded / whatever….
b&
If you ever do watch BSG, be prepared to be totally peeved at the last episode.
Thanks for the tip…now we’ll see whether or not I remember that by the time I do or don’t eventually get around to watching it….
b&
Yes, I’ve read the comics too. I’m behind right now though. I tend to wait until a bunch come out then read them all at once. I download them & read them on my iPad so it’s easy to lie in bed & read & buy, read & buy. 🙂
The writer of the sign obviously is a proponent of libertarian free will applied to inanimate matter. Here’s betting that some stroppy street will not follow the schedule.
Would make a cute animation: a street cleaning a notice.
😉
If you get a ticket, a good lawyer should be able to get you off paying it. The problem, of course, is the cost of making a point.
You could go with a cheaper paralegal option. Something like this wouldn’t need the services or a full on lawyer.
starting April fools day.. he got you there Professor! but I don’t think you can stretch it till 30th Nov, that’s a bit on the nose.
..so put your broom away.
However ‘are enforced from’ should it not be ‘will be enforced from’
All power to the sign, the street cleaning can wait for a fine day.
Man, that’s so bad I’d tell whoever made the sign that they need to go back to school and learn English.
City bureaucracies are very good at dangling their modifiers. The second sentence says the streets can do something (remain clear of vehicles) to avoid parking tickets. Hear that, all you Chicago streets?
Why are the dates written as ordinal numbers? To my British eye it looks extremely odd; although we might say “thirtieth of November”, in writing it would be 30 November. But American date formatting is always screwed up. It makes no sense to put the day between the month and the year.
You say 30th of November, we say November 30th. The order makes sense here, but the purpose for the dates on the sign is unclear.
All modern American English style guides frown on ordinal dates written after the month. The standard usage is “November 30.”
Sub
I’m not too bothered about enforcing the “signs” — it is obvious shorthand for the “peculiar regulations written on the signs.” But those ghastly date ordinals! They are hard to read with Arabic numerals and unnecessary when comparisons aren’t being made. And although I prefer the 24-hour clock, in either notation there is no reason to include the minutes when they are zero.
What are they telling us about “Friday, November 21 Monday, November 23”? The notice doesn’t actually say. We just know it pertains to street cleaning.
The title is just wrong; the primary purpose of the sign is not to inform us about the city’s schedule, but to notify drivers that parking is not allowed on certain days. The headline should be “Temporary Parking Ban.”
“Friday, November… etc.” may indicate that the ban begins at 12:01 on Saturday morning and ends on Sunday at 11:59 pm. If the ban will include Friday and Monday, the word “through” should be inserted between the dates.
But who knows? Maybe the ban only applies to Friday and Monday! The notice is confusing on that point.
How does Parking Enforcement enforce a sign? “Notices,” not signs, are enforced.
How did April 1st get in there? Was that inserted as an April Fool’s Day joke?
Residents must be delighted to learn that posted rules are NOT enforced December through March! And what is meant by “weather permitting”? Does Parking Enforcement take rainy days off?
Does Parking Enforcement ordinarily issue tickets to entire streets? Who pays the fine?
Why are “city” and “holidays” capitalized?
They don’t need a grammarian on staff; they just need somebody with working brain cells.
I wonder if they issue rain checks?
Isn’t it “civic” holiday? Since when do cities declare their own holidays?
There’s a road sign that we see in the UK quite often that bugs me (and not just because it indicates that I may be delayed):
“Possible stationary traffic ahead”
I can see how that might depress you.
It would more optimistically be worded:
“Possibly no stationary traffic ahead”.
At least it’s not stationery traffic…