D4D

I don't know anything about saints, but I have an uncanny instinct for sniffing out a son of a bitch.

Archive for the category “Pedantry”

Reporting Potholes

One thing I’ve become a bit of an arse about over the last few months has been reporting potholes and road damage to the local council(s).

I’m not the only one doing it, I’m sure – but particularly with Bedfordshire it’s interesting to see the speed of response from when I’ve reported stuff to when it gets fixed.

I’m drawing the conclusion that it’s down to me because in some cases I’ve left the report for a month or more, with nothing happening. When I report it, it gets checked and fixed quite shortly afterwards.  Now sure, it could be that my report is the one that breaks the limit on reporting – but not every time, I’m sure.

I know that councils are reducing their road repairs as part of all this austerity and cost-saving bollocks, but it’s a false economy.  The costs/claims for damage are a big factor – and particularly claims are more likely to be paid up when the pothole has been reported (but not repaired) because that shows more of a disregard for maintenance.

I’m not interested in that side particularly. I am interested in getting decent road quality without dangerous potholes causing issues – both to myself and others.

Critical Reading

As has been observed many times over the years, I can be a really picky/pedantic bastard – particularly when it comes to spelling, punctuation, and literacy in general. And it’s true, I am all of those things.

Today I’ve been proof-reading a menu for the work Christmas Do  (of which more at some other point) – and with some of the errors, had to check the original menu.

So – would you still go to a place whose menu has spelling errors?  I realise that the typing and publication of the menu won’t have come direct from the chef, and will have been farmed out to someone on reception (or similar) – but really, if chefs / owners are so obsessed about control, wouldn’t that also extend to the menu, and how it represents the establishment ?

In this case, some of the spelling errors are pretty basic – Mascarpone , for example, is mis-spelled. In others, it’s the actual cooking techniques themselves, such as “Ballantine” instead of “Ballotine”. And I just find that a bit worrying – for if there’s that lack of attention to details in the menu, I can’t help but think there might be the same lack of attention when it comes to the food.

Shock, Horror

At least two different media sites are today carrying the story about the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) telling clothing company Jack Wills (ever heard of them? I hadn’t) to not continue publishing their current catalogue until certain images are changed.

The story’s on the BBC here – and on the scumrag Daily Mail here.

Only one of the two stories manages to also show the image in it’s full “offensive” version.  Guess which one?

Yep, you got it – good old Daily Fail, making sure its readers know precisely what they should be offended by.

[Oh, and if you do want to know what the image is, look below the 'More' link]

Read more…

Daily Fail

Always nice to see when the Daily Fail gets to screw things up. (again)

In this case, they’ve managed to forget to put two photo captions in on one story. (This may have changed on the page by the time you look at it)

First example

Text with "Caption here" instead of a phone captionSecond example

Way to go, Daily Fail!

Apostrophe Question

One for the pedants out there (you know who you are) because for once I’m just not sure…

In Homebase over the weekend, I ended up looking at seed potato sets. I know, what a classy life. Anyway, reading the back (Hey, I was bored) I saw this…

Apostrophe in the text of the seed potato set

Is this apostrophe errant or not?

I know that an apostrophe is used in the case of compressions (i.e. “there is” becoming “there’s”) but I’m fairly sure it doesn’t apply in the case of an abbreviation.

So to my knowledge this apostrophe is incorrect, but equally I’ve been known to be wrong on these finer points…

So – am I right? Or is this OK?

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