Random musings.
How is this different from any other post here, you are wondering?
Just chicken. Chicken fast food restaurants just serve chicken. Sure, you can get a salad at Chick-Fil-A or KFC, but you can't get a burger or a hot dog or ham or roast beef. Conversely, at burger joints (and Arby's), you can get chicken. Or fish or other alternatives. Even White Castle has a chicken sandwich. I guess if you don't like chicken, you don't go to a chicken joint. But if you don't like burgers, the burger joints have alternatives. Weird.
Foam and pottery. Does anybody else find the fragility of the space shuttle peculiar? Weren't our spaceships supposed to be chrome plated with a solid foot thick of armor plating to defend against enemy missiles? The launch vehicle is foam covered, and the shuttle ceramic tiles are fatally bruised if you bump into them. A piece of fiber filler sticking up one inch could be catastrophic on re-entry. I bet the Russian spacecraft aren't built this way. God, I hope those guys get home okay.
Keep it simple. The new spacecraft planned by NASA has the crew and payload above the launch vehicle, they way they used to do it. This reminds me of the story about the Fischer Fisher Space Pen, designed by NASA to work in microgravity, when the Russians just used a pencil. Sometimes the simple plan is the best plan. Sorry, a check of Snopes shows that the pen and pencil story is false.
"Their" is wrong. Today's Ask Wizards talks about using "he or she," and they claim one of their games uses "their" as a singular pronoun, which is antiquated and wrong. I agree that consistency is the most important thing, but propagating bad grammar is a crime. That means you, Target Stores, with your new signage that says "Mens" and "Womens."
4 comments:
Just chicken: The local KFC to my office is a combined KFC and Taco Bell. There was obviously some confusion in the "order by the number scheme" as neither side was willing to give up on their menu. The compromise is that a "Number 1" at Taco Bell is a "T1" whereas you can just order a "Number 1" from the KFC side.
Hmm. I had also heard of the legendary "KenTacoHut" but have never seen one. That's KFC and Taco Bell and Pizza Hut all in the same building.
Still can't get a burger there. :P
Foam and pottery: This may be related to the way Star Trek's ship consoles blow up at the slightest provoction. You would think in the 24th century with all that advanced technology, the consoles would be better shielded. Or something.
Let's hope they can fix what's broken before coming home.
Bad grammar (I know that wasn't your heading but my comment isn't about 'their'): Things like Target's 'Mens' and 'Womens' signs just drive me crazy. I especially hate the rampant confusion over "its", "it's", and "its'". For some particularly egregious examples of bad punctuation, see "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Trusse.
ESL is a fun read but I've seen it heavily critiqued too. I'm with you both on the grammar and punctuation. Apostrophes are complicated, apparently. Confusion between "less" and "fewer" is my pet peeve.
I'm not a Nazi when it comes to friends and casual e-mails but when a major corporation puts something in print like that it doesn't make me want to give them any money. I was O.C. about proof-reading our stuff at the old place for the same reason.
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