In a discussion of the types of material used in model airplane engine construction, a poster wrote the following: "...the older lapped engines (fine grained cast iron [Mennonite] piston in a leaded steel liner)..." Religious pistons? Nah - he meant Meehanite.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
Many years ago, when the grocer would find whatever you wanted and put it on the counter, my cousin asked for a pound of Catholic rice. The grocer was perplexed. "We don't have any Catholic rice," he said. "I'm sorry," said my cousin. "I meant 'converted'"
I remember a grocery store like that in a small town I lived in. My recollection (of a 6-year-old is that there were no lines).
I still shop at a small hardware store here abouts that works on the same principal. Although there are items on shelves in the small public space in the store, usually you ask at the counter for an item or items and they retrieve it from non-public shelves in the larger back portion of the store. I wonder when self-service grocery stores became popular.
Come to think of it, we used to pay our grocery bill once a month.
There is a WC Fields' movie in which he portrays a grocer, Mr Bissonette, that works on the non-self-service principle.This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,
I recall tagging along when my mother went shopping at a small parade of shops we called "round the corner" - actually round about three corners but only ten minutes' walk away. There were a couple of grocers' shops, a greengrocers', a butchers' a wet fish shop, a tobacconist/confectionist's and a couple of others. The grocer kept almost all the goods behind the counter, and I can't remember waiting for service for very long.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
It's been quite a few years but I recall that the store [added: A First National, which was near to a Western Auto. Remember them?] only had a limited supply of goods, usually staples, so there wasn't much to order, thus no long lines. If there was something unavailable, the grocer would promise to order it from some unknown (to us) distributor and have it in within a week or two. Then he would take a paper bag (remember those?) and with the pencil he kept tucked behind his ear would tally the price of our groceries or other purchases on the bag (which became our receipt). At times my father would be unable to pay immediately so the grocer would mark down the purchase in a ledger, which my father would promise to make good on soon.
Later, the stores became more self-service, with more goods on public display, but the grocer was hidden away in an office and the only contact we had with staff were the stackers and the cashier. She spent an inordinate amount of time punching in prices, which were often hard to discern on the goods and often required long waits while the bagger went back to find the price on the shelf edge. The cashier couldn't extend credit but only wanted cash. Mercenary little bitch.This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Proofreader>,
The people running these small businesses tend to have to hand-write lots of signs, probably in a hurry while setting up the displays ready for opening. They are also unlikely to have received much formal teaching in English (or, anyway, paid much attention in class). I've also found that when people are hand-lettering signs (usually in block CAPITALS) correct spelling and punctuation tends to get ignored (or at least forgotten).
From Word Spy citing the Courier Mail, Queensland:
quote:
... It isn't really fair to single out greengrocers, since other professions and many individuals also use apostrophes in this way. But the greengrocer's apostrophe is commonest in handwritten signs and greengrocers are prominent among those who often have to write quick, informal notices for public display.
The greengrocer's apostrophe is most often found on signs outside shops on goods for sale: "Tool's reduced"; in shop windows: "Sales assistant's wanted"; and on public noticeboards, especially in personal advertisements: "Lawn's mowed at competitive rates".
This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
What arnie typed. Now, would a misplaced apostrophe make me not shop at or buy from? Probably not. But it's all a matter of context. If I am reviewing a technical writer's samples or resume and find a spelling or punctuation error, I would pretty much dismiss the candidate.
It's not peeving when you are looking for the facility to write "correct" English. If a sample or resume is badly written, that doesn't bode well for the author's standard of work. After all, the writing has been chosen by the applicant to show off their skills. It should have been proof-read to death.
When I'm writing formally I'll follow my organisation's style guide, even if I privately disagree with what's said there. I'll try to avoid constructions that might involve splitting the infinitive, ending a sentence with a preposition, using "decimate" to mean "destroy a large part of" instead of "destroy one tenth of", and so on. It's a pragmatic approach; even though I know there's no reason to decry such constructions it does no harm to avoid feeding the trolls. If a job applicant doesn't demonstrate similar abilities in their writing they are probably not the right person.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
What arnie said, except I would call it formal or standard English rather than "correct". I am also not saying that the candidates particular dialect (if indeed the problem is one of dialects) is "wrong".
Oh, and a friend of mine and I are always saying how I peeve about peevers and their silly notions.
K., partially this is the peever's distorted account of what descriptivists are on about. The first lie is that they don't care about language and allow all sorts of errors to creep in to the "dictionary" and ignore grammar. There are other problems but I think you know what they are ...
I thought the wink would make it clear that I was kidding. Believe me, I get that. Indeed, while I try to be fairly flexible here in posts, when writing or reading something formal, I can't stand obvious errors, such as a misuse of an apostrophe. On the other hand, I don't think it's important, or even correct, to go out of your way not to end a sentence with a preposition, nor do I obsess (as many do) about when to use which versus that in a formal paper. I have not been convinced that those particular rules are correct so I ignore them.
