More photos from my visit to the UK:
The verb ‘discharge’ would surely only apply to liquids or gases – effluent, not ‘litter’ – which doesn’t make much sense for a sign on a small, self-contained pool around an urban fountain. Where’s the Campaign for Plain English when you need them? (And, yes, I know I’ve mixed singulars and plurals there, but I don’t think it makes the sentence difficult to understand.)
That wasn’t the only sign on the fountain:
Continue reading “sign language”
I’ve just signed up for FaceBook as so many people seem to think it’s the best way to keep in touch. In particular, there are poets I want to be in contact with and it seems to be where they hang out.
(It’s true that I also have friends, including some poets, who loathe and detest the system and think I must be mad, but I hope they won’t ‘unfriend me’ in Real Life because of it.)
When you sign up, the system asks for your date of birth, the theory being that you will then be shown age-appropriate content and adverts. Presumably like the one shown here, which seems to be telling me I am too old for FaceBook.
Continue reading “get off my lawn*”
Another BBC website headline that interests me: 
There’s nothing actually wrong with it, of course. It heads a story that starts:
Serial killer franchise Saw has been named the most successful horror movie series by the Guinness World Records.
But the phrasing demonstrates the problems of trying to write headlines that fit into a measured space on a web page (or printed page, for that matter.)
Continue reading “see saw”
Under the headline Dolphin ‘superpod’ seen by wildlife spotters off Skye, the BBC start a story with this slightly disconcerting lede:
A group of wildlife spotters have encountered a massive pod of dolphins on a boat trip off the north coast of Skye.
I guess even dolphins must get tired of swimming sometimes.
In the post Sound Reasoning, I talked about how in Spanish each letter corresponds to a single sound. This must make it hard for a Spaniard to visualise the spelling of a word when he hears it spoken in English, and therefore must make comprehension more difficult.
It does, however, add to the pleasure of watching films in English with amateur Spanish subtitles. I admire the guys who attempt what is clearly a task beyond their capabilities. They gather up their inadequate grammar and try and create meaning from sound alone.
Continue reading “sound and sense”
don't confuse the narrator 