Linguaphilia

A couple of friends turned me on to this entertaining blog about language. It's basically a bunch of crotchety linguists riffing on both language abusers and overzealous language watchdogs. This is the kind of thing they like to post about:

(Cartoon by Ted Rall.)

Read at your peril, though; the blog is liable not only to make you hyperconscious of your own grammatical and stylistic choices and idiosyncrasies, but if you're anything like me, it will make you even more prone to pointing out to your friends the dangling modifiers and misplaced apostrophes that are rampant in signage across this great land of ours. Here's the example to which I can never stop returning: in Portland, OR, there is a bar who's name is supposed to be a pun on fishing. The pub's name should read, "The Reel 'Em Inn." Instead, the sign proclaims the name of the place to be, "The Reel M'Inn." Say it out loud. It sounds funny in your mouth.

--Megan