In a struggle to be happy and free

Drystone Wall

Month: June 2003 Page 1 of 2

Release dates around the world

We’re starting to get a taste of our own medicine here in North America.

Traditionally, films are released here first and then slowly trickle their way across the world. Rebecca tells me films usually open in Japan six months after I’ve already seen them. I’ve seen ads for 28 Days Later… and Johnny English on television recently and in both cases I thought they’d both been out for some time. It turns out they’re both new to North America, but were released elsewhere (in dozens of countries) between three and six months ago. They’re both U.K. productions so perhaps that’s the reason.

Have I just not noticed this happening in the past?

Poor illiterate Bob

A grammar/punctuation rant follows. You’ve been warned!

We’ve got a new radio station in town and they’re advertising all over the place. I’ve found the campaign very amusing because they’ve either been preparing the ad copy themselves, or they’ve hired a cut-rate ad-agency. The most obvious indicator of difficulty is they don’t understand when to use an apostrophe, and when not to. The ads describe the music they play as being from the “80’s and 90’s and whatever.” Last I heard, the apostrophe indicates missing letters (as in a contraction), or possession. Neither is the case here. If anything, ’80s and ’90s is correct because the first two digits of the years were omitted.

On their website, they further show their misunderstanding of the apostrophe. Following a link leading to an open letter to everyone with the name Bob opens a pop-up window displaying a letter. The problem is revealed in the title: “An Open Letter to all BOB’s.” Even ignoring the goofed up capitalisation of the first letters of each word, and the capitalization of all of the letters in Bob, there’s no way in hell there should be an apostrophe. They mean more than one Bob, not something belonging to a single Bob, nor do they mean “Bob is” or “Bob has.” Every time they refer to more than one person named Bob, they use an apostrophe. Interestingly enough, the open letter ends with a postscript: “We’ll also give you the shirts off our backs!” Given their treatment of more than one Bob, more than one shirt and more than one back should also incorrectly get an apostrophe. Strangely, the link to the open letter correctly leaves the apostrophe out of the plural of Bob.

I find misuse of the apostrophe when adding an ‘s’ to make a word plural is extremely annoying because the misuse is so widespread, but this is worse because the usage is inconsistent.

Don’t get me started on how “80’s… 90’s… & Whatever” doesn’t even make complete sense because you’re specifying two particular decades, then including all the others with the very last word. If you’re going to do that, you need not specify any decades to begin with. The ellipses and ampersand are misused in the slogan as well.

If their programming and on-air talent are as big a disaster as their ad copy, I won’t have to worry about seeing this advertising eyesore for very long.

The nuclear threat

I’m amazed every time I hear someone pronounce the word ‘nuclear’ as the three syllable NOO-cue-ler. Even more amazing is the President of the United States seems unable to pronounce the word correctly. How can I take him seriously? Certainly someone has corrected him, right? But he still goes on making himself look like an idiot.

Welcome, balcony ball

About a month ago, I heard some kids playing outside. This was very soon after the nice weather started so it was no surprise. They were either on a balcony on my side of the building, or behind the building at ground level. I heard a ball bouncing and some yelling. It made me think of how much fun a few kids could have with nothing but a ball.

Later, I thought they really must were giving the ball a workout because the last series of bounces was much louder than the earlier ones. Minutes later, I saw movement on my balcony in my peripheral vision and it scared the shit out of me. No one should’ve been out there! Sure, you know the kids’ ball somehow landed on my balcony but it never occurred to me at the time. The ball is still there. I’ve been waiting for the kids to knock at my door and ask for the ball, but they haven’t come.

I’m certainly not upset about it … on the contrary, it amuses me. Meanwhile, the wind still blows the ball around my balcony.

Another final bow

Another one of the greats have left us. A couple of weeks ago Gregory Peck died at the age of 87. Yesterday it was Katharine Hepburn, who was 96. I know we’ve all got to go eventually, but it still makes me sad to lose these film greats.

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