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    The Grammar Vigilante

    The BBC have an interesting piece on the Grammar Vigilante who stalks the streets of Bristol.

    The Grammar Vigilante

    From the report:

    For years, it has been rumoured that somebody has been going out late at night, correcting bad punctuation on Bristol shop fronts.

    The self-proclaimed "grammar vigilante" goes out undercover in the dead of night correcting street signs and shop fronts where the apostrophes are in the wrong place.

    Jon Kay meets grammar's answer to Banksy and reveals the extent of his one man mission to improve standards.
    The Guardian has picked up on the story and refers to the man as The Banksy of punctuation

    Whatever he is, I think he's a hero. I wonder if we get him to post on here?

    #2
    The Grammar Vigilante

    Paul S wrote: The BBC have an interesting piece on the Grammar Vigilante who stalks the streets of Bristol.

    The Grammar Vigilante

    From the report:

    For years, it has been rumoured that somebody has been going out late at night, correcting bad punctuation on Bristol shop fronts.

    The self-proclaimed "grammar vigilante" goes out undercover in the dead of night correcting street signs and shop fronts where the apostrophes are in the wrong place.

    Jon Kay meets grammar's answer to Banksy and reveals the extent of his one man mission to improve standards.
    The Guardian has picked up on the story and refers to the man as The Banksy of punctuation

    Whatever he is, I think he's a hero. I wonder if we get him to post on here?
    How do we know he doesn't?

    Comment


      #3
      The Grammar Vigilante

      Yes. Perhaps he doe's.

      Comment


        #4
        The Grammar Vigilante

        Capybara wrote: Yes. Perhaps he doe's.
        Yes, perhaps he's Doe's.

        Comment


          #5
          The Grammar Vigilante

          If he posts or lurks on here, he should let me know, because when I'm in Bristol in July I'd like to buy him a pint.

          Comment


            #6
            The Grammar Vigilante

            This sign in Germany deserves a prize for being ungrammatical in English and German.

            Comment


              #7
              The Grammar Vigilante

              You could meet a hundred blokes like him down the Gloucester Road every night.

              Comment


                #8
                The Grammar Vigilante

                I'm afraid I can never resist correcting all the mistakes on pub menu boards.

                Comment


                  #9
                  The Grammar Vigilante

                  I'm the same - it drives me potty. The guy who runs my weekly pub quiz gets a little shirty when I grammatically amend his photocopied sheets each week. (So correct the master copy - then I won't need to do it, eh?)

                  Who was it that first decided any plural should require an apostrophe? I remember my first day in one of my first positions as a graphic designer (c three decades back): my boss insisted on placing apostrophes ahead of the 's' in the terms ''60s', ''70s' and ''80s' - which I know a lot of people do, but is aggravating and wrong. He became quite animated about it - despite my [strike]protests[/strike] recommendations - so I let him think I'd changed it. Could've lost my job on day one, there.

                  Anyway, all power to this guy. People are gradually becoming illiterate in this country.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The Grammar Vigilante

                    Whoever's doing this is a proper dick. I hope he gets sent to prison or something.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      The Grammar Vigilante

                      I would correct the grammar, punctuation and spelling on my uncle's letters from prison (driving without a licence or insurance before anyone asks) so that they could be rendered legible for the rest of my family to read.

                      I was eight.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        The Grammar Vigilante

                        I'm not sure this is grammatical in nature, but it's driving me nuts. I would happily write "Now you can bank without ever stepping into a branch" or "Now you can bank without ever setting foot in a branch." But lately I've been reading "Now you can bank without ever stepping foot into a branch."

                        Wrong, or just me?

                        Comment


                          #13
                          The Grammar Vigilante

                          Course, I'm completely unsurprised he's found favour on here.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            The Grammar Vigilante

                            WOM wrote: I'm not sure this is grammatical in nature, but it's driving me nuts. I would happily write "Now you can bank without ever stepping into a branch" or "Now you can bank without ever setting foot in a branch." But lately I've been reading "Now you can bank without ever stepping foot into a branch."

                            Wrong, or just me?
                            Not just you.

                            Whether or not it's gramattically (!) incorrect is irrelevant, really.

                            It's horribly clunky.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              The Grammar Vigilante

                              EIM wrote: Course, I'm completely unsurprised he's found favour on here.
                              That's fair enough. Meanwhile, the rest of us are absolutely knocked off our collective feet that you might choose to assume the opposing viewpoint. Let's hope that the guy gets a knighthood - or the cash equivalent - and that all these dodgy signwriters are put out of business and thrown in jail until they agree to do their jobs properly. The thick bastards.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                The Grammar Vigilante

                                Check
                                Jah Womble wrote:
                                Originally posted by EIM
                                Course, I'm completely unsurprised he's found favour on here.
                                That's fair enough. Meanwhile, the rest of us are absolutely knocked off our collective feet that you might choose to assume the opposing viewpoint. Let's hope that the guy gets a knighthood - or the cash equivalent - and that all these dodgy signwriters are put out of business and thrown in jail until they agree to do their jobs properly. The thick bastards.
                                "Gaol"...

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  The Grammar Vigilante

                                  This is some truly heroic, public-spirited pedantry. My applause to the man, whoever he is. (Perhaps he is Banksy?)

                                  This alone, in the Guardian article, demonstrates an above-and-beyond dedication to the cause:
                                  He also has a specially made stepladder that means he does not have to lean a conventional ladder against shop windows and carries a set square and scalpel to make sure his work is neat and precise.
                                  There's some equally heroic defence of the English language going on in the comments section there:

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    The Grammar Vigilante

                                    Guy Profumo wrote: Check
                                    Originally posted by Jah Womble
                                    Originally posted by EIM
                                    Course, I'm completely unsurprised he's found favour on here.
                                    That's fair enough. Meanwhile, the rest of us are absolutely knocked off our collective feet that you might choose to assume the opposing viewpoint. Let's hope that the guy gets a knighthood - or the cash equivalent - and that all these dodgy signwriters are put out of business and thrown in jail until they agree to do their jobs properly. The thick bastards.
                                    "Gaol"...
                                    Ha - you'll have to believe me that that actually crossed my mind when typing. When writing the first edition of NOIH I went with that traditional spelling, but Penguin returned it with every occurrence (of which there were many) amended to the more familiar representation, saying that they found the former 'irritating'. The f*ckers.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      The Grammar Vigilante

                                      Hahaha, well played Penguin!

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        The Grammar Vigilante

                                        I'm a little bit uneasy about grammar vigilante. I have relatives who proudly proclaim themselves to be 'grammar nazis' on social media and, even though they don't mean it entirely seriously, I'd rather have imperfect punctuation than be a Nazi.

                                        What annoys you most about the following sentence?

                                        Support Your Local Food Bank's.

                                        As Bruce Lee said, when a finger points at the moon, the fool looks at the misplaced apostrophe.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          The Grammar Vigilante

                                          The Cockney Corduroy King has nailed it for me there, Geoffs. That's what I would have liked to have typed if a) I could have been bothered, ii) I knew Bruce Lee's thoughts on the topic and 3) there is no 3.

                                          I don't like misplaced apostrophes. I find them difficult to look at. I think it can show a shoddy attitude to work. But I also find people's attitude to them *can* be unbearably snobby. But talking about shop signs, yeah, there's no excuse. No excuse from the shops who should check, and no excuse from the sign writers who should double check.

                                          My issue is with the person who thinks this is important enough to go out at night with specially made tools and correct them. I mean fucking hell. Sort it out.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            The Grammar Vigilante

                                            Yes, I'm happy to join in a little light-hearted pedantry, and have done my share of grumbling about stray apostrophes.

                                            But if you're going to be a stickler, you need to accompany that with a little self-awareness, and in my experience English grammar pedants are often unashamedly monolingual and entirely uninterested in similar levels of accuracy when they talk foreign. Have a giggle at the errors in a Chinese menu, but try not to forget that you can't say a single one of those squiggles sitting next to the words you actually can read. If the equivalent of apostrophe crime is missing an umlaut or accent, then it's a crime committed casually, all the time, often by the very same people who are silently haranguing greengrocers.

                                            I'm not saying they're all Brexit twats, just ... they speak English, so they've got a head start.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              The Grammar Vigilante

                                              MiserableOldGit wrote: I'm afraid I can never resist correcting all the mistakes on pub menu boards.
                                              Do you usually walk about with a piece of chalk in your hand?

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                The Grammar Vigilante

                                                Jah Womble wrote:
                                                Originally posted by Guy Profumo
                                                Check
                                                Originally posted by Jah Womble
                                                Originally posted by EIM
                                                Course, I'm completely unsurprised he's found favour on here.
                                                That's fair enough. Meanwhile, the rest of us are absolutely knocked off our collective feet that you might choose to assume the opposing viewpoint. Let's hope that the guy gets a knighthood - or the cash equivalent - and that all these dodgy signwriters are put out of business and thrown in jail until they agree to do their jobs properly. The thick bastards.
                                                "Gaol"...
                                                Ha - you'll have to believe me that that actually crossed my mind when typing. When writing the first edition of NOIH I went with that traditional spelling, but Penguin returned it with every occurrence (of which there were many) amended to the more familiar representation, saying that they found the former 'irritating'. The f*ckers.
                                                I'll be frank - when I read gaol in 2017 the first think that crosses my mind is 'pedantic public-school twat'. Which I know doesn't apply in this case. The pedantic twat bit, that is.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  The Grammar Vigilante

                                                  Vulgarian Visigoth wrote:
                                                  Originally posted by Jah Womble
                                                  Originally posted by Guy Profumo
                                                  Check
                                                  Originally posted by Jah Womble
                                                  Originally posted by EIM
                                                  Course, I'm completely unsurprised he's found favour on here.
                                                  That's fair enough. Meanwhile, the rest of us are absolutely knocked off our collective feet that you might choose to assume the opposing viewpoint. Let's hope that the guy gets a knighthood - or the cash equivalent - and that all these dodgy signwriters are put out of business and thrown in jail until they agree to do their jobs properly. The thick bastards.
                                                  "Gaol"...
                                                  Ha - you'll have to believe me that that actually crossed my mind when typing. When writing the first edition of NOIH I went with that traditional spelling, but Penguin returned it with every occurrence (of which there were many) amended to the more familiar representation, saying that they found the former 'irritating'. The f*ckers.
                                                  I'll be frank - when I read gaol in 2017 the first think that crosses my mind is 'pedantic public-school twat'. Which I know doesn't apply in this case. The pedantic twat bit, that is.
                                                  Nah. It's the "public school" bit that doesn't apply - state comprehensive lad, me.

                                                  Comment

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