Grammar police punished for 'fixing' rare sign

MSNBC ^ | August 22, 2008

[gitmo]

PHOENIX - When it comes to marking up historic signs, good grammar is a bad defense.

Two self-styled vigilantes against typos who defaced a more than 60-year-old, hand-painted sign at Grand Canyon National Park were sentenced to probation and banned from national parks for a year. They had removed an extraneous apostrophe and added a comma to the sign.

Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson pleaded guilty Aug. 11 for the damage done March 28 at the park's Desert View Watchtower. The sign was made by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the architect who designed the rustic 1930s watchtower and other Grand Canyon-area landmarks.

[gitmo]

I detest those extraneous apostrophes'.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There was a guy in my office in St. Paul who added an apostrophe to nearly every word that had an “s” ending...

[rlmorel]

Dang. I thought it said GERMAN police...

[NonValueAdded]

Its really a shame, that those folks couldn't appreciate the sign in it's natural state.

_{let's see what the GP can do with that!}

[Popman]

Ok, u speling nazis fus up

[Allegra]

I’ll have to admit that I’ve erased apostrophes used improperly for plurals off of restaurant chalkboards a couple of times, but yeah...this is going a little too far. ;-)

[NonValueAdded]

German police or German urologists? Achtung indeed!

[lilycicero]

I thought you said your name was Becky....

[Menehune56]

This stuff used to bug me too but the internet has desensitized me to grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. I no longer feel compelled to post corrections to my errors or other’s. (or is it others’?)

[marktwain]

Here is a link that shows the actual sign:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=522

I think it is telling that no one noticed for a month or more.

These idiots would never have been caught if they had not posted a web site about their crime and boasted about it.

Most criminals are caught because they cannot keep their mouth shut.

[itsamelman]

Armed with Sharpies, erasers and righteous indignation, two apostles of the apostrophe make it their crusade to rid the world of bad signs

[gitmo]

They claim it will cost 5 grand to remove some white out and Sharpie from that sign? Ridiculous. I’d do it for 4 grand.

[Lawgvr1955]

You have to remember, it is the Government fixing the sign. You’d be lucky to fix a $30 sign for less than $5,000 with Government labor.

[Albion Wilde]

"Deck and Herson, both 28, toured the United States this spring, wiping out errors on government and private signs. They were interviewed by National Public Radio and the Chicago Tribune, which called them 'a pair of Kerouacs armed with Sharpies and erasers and righteous indignation.' "

On their way to Californicatia to get married?

[littlehouse36]

Its really a shame, that those folks couldn't appreciate the sign in it's its natural state.

 

Its really a shame, that those folks couldn't appreciate the sign in it's its natural state.

 

Stop messing with our heads!

 

- the G.P.

 

Its really a shame, that those folks couldn't appreciate the sign in it's its natural state.

Its really a shame, that those folks couldn't appreciate the sign in it's its natural state.

Stop messing with our heads!

- the G.P.

[RedRover]

Only on Thursday nights.

[NonValueAdded]

Ha, you missed two errors. Rookie.

[afortiori]

What do you get when you mix obsessive compulsive disorder with an intellectual superiority complex?

Behold!

[Vince Ferrer]

They should be sentenced to six months in China without being able to correct their signs.

[Nailbiter]

ping