Blogger 'Exposes' Annoying Quote Abuse

AP via SFGate ^ | 9/21/7 | JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer

[SmithL]

NEW YORK, (AP) --

Isn't it "funny" how something can "really annoy" you for ages and then you discover via "the Internet" that the same thing "really annoys" thousands of "other people," too?

The blight that Bethany Keeley exposes on her "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks ( ) is of a benign sort, of course, nothing like global warming or endangered wildlife.

But it bothers people mightily just the same, as this 24-year-old grad student and language-lover has discovered from the hundreds, occasionally thousands of visitors she gets daily. And nary a day goes by when she doesn't receive a bunch of e-mails with photographic evidence of quote abuse, misuse or overuse.

As in:

_The sign in Fletcher, Okla., which advertised a tractor club's ANNUAL SHOW -- "Labor Day Weekend."

_The restaurant billboard in Madison, Wis., which felt the need to put quotes around "Lunch" and "Dinners."

_The bathroom sign that asked visitors to Leave the Light "On" during business hours. ("On" was also underlined. Twice.)

_The currently featured "Good Luck Amy" cake, which not only wastes frosting on those quote marks, but adds parentheses around the whole message.

There's also a regular stop sign with a handwritten "Stop" beneath it, for good measure apparently. Then there's the security guard at a rest area in Mississippi, a "SECURITY GUARD" sign beneath him that unwittingly casts doubt on the whole enterprise.

Keeley comes from, you might say, a long line of unnecessary-quote watchers,

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

how did you all forget this!

[Colofornian]

Can you spell “perfectionist?”

[Tainan]

I am befuddled by people who use *these* things on their *internet* posts....what the heck are *they* supposed to indicate?

Color me *curious*?

[bmwcyle]

“bttt”

[bert]

If she were really a capable person, she would be an English teacher.