Here’s another fun example of the kind of English misuse that makes me twitch. This is a reusable shopping bag that we got from WIC awhile ago. The typo is an itty bitty one… An apostrophe, to be exact. Without it, we’re sharing our multiple strengths. With it, we’re sharing something belonging to our strength! And if it’s the cooking that belongs to our strength, then the word “matters” is just kind of hanging there, like he’s waiting for a bus… Or some meaning. Maybe he’s waiting for our strength’s cooking to be shared. Eureka! I have solved the mystery.
I encountered this very innocent and not uncommon typo on Monday, while we were window shopping in Lance’s favorite store. The new girl handed me a flyer, and it was the first thing I noticed – even before the sale percentage, which tells you how compulsive I am about these things.
Then I had to say, “You know there’s a typo on here, right?” Yes, in the middle of a conversation about bicycles, I just blurted that out.
The girl just kind of stared at me like I was crazy, then finally came up with, in a very ‘why do you care about this anyway?’ tone, “…. No?…”
Lance saved me by shaking his head, sighing, and saying, “She does this. She can’t help it.”
It’s true.