{"id":2788,"date":"2018-10-14T07:55:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T12:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/?p=2788"},"modified":"2018-10-14T07:55:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-14T12:55:30","slug":"i-give-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/?p=2788","title":{"rendered":"I Give Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

After decades of bellyaching about the sad state of NYC signs, I have officially given up\u00a0 — on some issues, not on all. Grammarian in the City will no longer object to the following:<\/p>\n

\"\"As far as I’m concerned, BOGO all you want. I once thought that the concept of “buy one get one” was an unnecessary statement of the standard deal between buyer and seller. But now I see that most BOGO-users are too busy surfing social media to add an “F,” for “free.” Or maybe they think that BOGOF sounds like a mediocre brand of caviar. I commend this sign-writer for specifying the terms of the deal, spelling out “buy one get one” for “50% Off,” though strictly speaking the sign should read “BOGAOF50%O” (buy one get another one for 50% off). I concede that such a sign resembles the kind of password people concoct and promptly forget. I will, however, raise an objection to “tight.” I\u00a0 prefer to cover both legs with “tights,” not just one with a “FREE tight.” And $75 is a little steep, don’t you think?<\/p>\n

I’ve also thrown in the towel when it come to hyphens:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My first glimpse of this truck made we wonder whether Bunsen burners are prone to out-of-control blazes. If so, I thought, there is certainly a need for “scientific-fire prevention.” But perhaps this company pursues customers who prefer that the laws of physics take priority in battling flames? That meaning would call for “scientific fire-prevention.” Whatever. I’m done with fulminating about hyphenating.<\/p>\n

Nor will I say one word about the silliness of this sort of sign:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Okay, just a couple of words: Is there anyone who believes that amateurs rent stores, buy equipment, and have signs painted so that they can repair “hand-bags,” zippers,” and “luggage”?\u00a0 Judging from the trend to specify “professional” dry-cleaning, barbering, and other services, I guess the answer is yes. No matter. I don’t care. I can even live with this sign’s reference to moribund footwear (“dying” not “dyeing”).<\/p>\n

Inaccurate acronyms, missing hyphens, and dead shoes:\u00a0 This “professional” grammarian has given up on them all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After decades of bellyaching about the sad state of NYC signs, I have officially given up\u00a0 — on some issues, not on all. Grammarian in the City will no longer object to the following: As far as I’m concerned, BOGO all you want. I once thought that the concept of “buy one get one” was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26,30,9,29],"tags":[19,387,25,392,10,16,388,390,11,12,389,391,48],"class_list":["post-2788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trending-words","category-punctuation","category-street-signs-and-advertisements","category-work-related-terms","tag-advertisements","tag-bogo","tag-confusing-signs","tag-dyeing-or-dying","tag-english-idioms","tag-english-usage","tag-fire-prevention","tag-free-tights","tag-hyphens","tag-punctuation","tag-scientific-fires","tag-shoe-repair","tag-silly-signs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4YRMV-IY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2788"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2800,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions\/2800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}