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Its in old market.......say no more
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Clearly, the painter was keen to get to the end of the job.
All together now: "There's two G's in biggest!"
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“Septermeberâ€
For some reason, I now have the Womble song in my head...
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If the signwriter had included an "R" after the "U" as well, it would have been just a minor hiccup.
Last edited by: Stuartli on Wed 27 Aug 14 at 14:51
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No one can spell these days. An attack was mounted on literacy in the sixties, initially by left-wing twits but subsequently embraced by everyone. A damaging attack on the language itself, whatever those who can't spell or compose a proper sentence may think or claim. Spelling isn't everything (I have a friend who teaches English Literature at a university, but who routinely misspells certain words... and anyone can make a typo), but it's one of the foundations of literacy which is a pillar of evolved human culture. Sounds a bit pompous put like that, I know.
Third-generation illiterates applying for head teachers' posts are said to be suffering from 'stress'. So the carphounds should, because they are trying to get jobs that illiterates can't do properly. The print and broadcast media seem happy about it. 'We're all the same these days,' they say smugly in a thousand different ways.
No we damn well aren't all the same. It's a lie propagated by the educationally deprived, poor sods.
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"one of the foundations of literacy"
I quite agree, AC. It never fails to amaze me, especially in an age of instant global communications, that methods of teaching fundamental skills (RRR) should differ so widely, but I guess the people who devised the 'old-school' techniques of reciting alphabets, tables, weights and measures, etc. hadn't reckoned with 'educationalists' who managed to set it all back by decades, aided and abetted by the famously dyslexic Grauniad!
My 17-year old son even tells me that exam answers no longer have to be handwritten...
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>> the famously dyslexic Grauniad!
The Terrorflag which used to be impeccable in this respect now outdoes the Grauniad. Private Eye says it's because all the sub-editors have been fired as an economy move.
Morons and cynics, the modern powers that be.
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It's strange though, isn't it, now that computers can spell quite well? I used to take the Observer until it merged with the Grauniad, and suddenly the spelling got worse. I can only conclude that they have their own, specially crap, publishing software.
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"My 17-year old son even tells me that exam answers no longer have to be handwritten..."
Surely not. In the twenty fist century in an era of huge technological advance we should be insisting people don't use these new fangled devices and continue to use the technology of pen and ink pioneered by medieval monks.
As for spelling of course it makes life easier if we use a standardised system but it has very little to do with literacy. As AC remarks it is perfectly possible to be a creative and interesting author and not be able to or particularly care about spelling. Shakespeare, or was it Shaksper, didn't manage too badly. Obsession with spelling can be tiresome.
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>> Shakespeare, or was it Shaksper, didn't manage too badly. Obsession with spelling can be tiresome.
It can. But it does have to do with literacy. What people forget is that Shagsper was writing (at furious speed) for an illiterate audience. Too much illiteracy starts to dissolve the language itself. We don't need that.
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"huge technological advance"
Not much evidence of that in education, unless you count the huge screens that have replaced most blackboards. I think being able to write by hand will remain a useful accomplishment for some while yet...
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And another one
Jane Austen's name misspelt on Hampshire museum sign
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-31963760
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>> Madelaine Smith, who works at the attraction, said: "It is one of those names you shouldn't spell wrong."
This extract from the link seems to suggest that there are names that should be spelt wrong.
The woman responsible for the quote puts her money where her mouth is by spelling her own first name, er, wrongly.
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I often relapse into erstwhile assignment-marking mode and mark up the Telegraph's spelling errors and other assaults on the language. Mrs. Ambo usually manages to spot a few more.
But what I chiefly object to is journalists "summoning up the hidden cohorts" to seem authoritative, with opening statements such as:
A recent study revealed…
Sources close to government tell me...
Everyone knows that...
According to those whose know…
It is well known that…
Ministerial sources have stated…
A good many people would agree that…
Scientists have found that…
Recent polls show…
A regarded source tells me…
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...opening statements such as...
'It is a truth universally acknowledged...'
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>> I often relapse into erstwhile assignment-marking mode and mark up the Telegraph's spelling errors and
>> other assaults on the language. Mrs. Ambo usually manages to spot a few more.
>>
>> But what I chiefly object to is journalists "summoning up the hidden cohorts" to seem
>> authoritative, with opening statements such as:
I dread to ask, and I know I'll probably regret it, but why is that so bad?
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>>I dread to ask, and I know I'll probably regret it, but why is that so bad?
Because we don't know if there is any real substance in such statements, without chapter and verse.
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>> >>I dread to ask, and I know I'll probably regret it, but why is that
>> so bad?
>>
>> Because we don't know if there is any real substance in such statements, without chapter
>> and verse.
But they are hardly likely to say "And here is something I made up" (despite the fact they probably did)
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Madelaine Smith, who works at the attraction, said: "It is one of those names you shouldn't spell wrong."
Poor subbing. It's really Mad Elaine Smith but she was probably interviewed over the phone and the editor assumed wrongly that the first word was part of her name.
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If she's so concerned about spelling, she should know that she should have said 'spell wrongly'
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"Mad Elaine Smith" :-)
An Australian newspaper recently carried an arresting headline about '30 thousand pigs' that had been seen floating down a local river. The incident had been reported by phone and they had to issue a correction when it was pointed out that the actual loss was '30 sows and pigs'...
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The 'thousand pigs' remind me of the request passed to an announcer on (I think) Classic FM for 'my grandpa who is 111 today'.
After much cooing by the announcer the piece of music was played, and then he said ' Sorry that should have been ' for my grandpa who is ill today'.
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Dyslexic sign writers strike again - mikeyb
