Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Vacation highlights (of sorts), part I: Grammar town

Highlights from last week's vacation (in no particular order):

Thursday, September 28

Monterey, California

Monterey
is a quaint town on the central coast of California, and seems fairly affluent. (There's no litter on the streets.) It has a very nice aquarium and something of an unhealthy obsession with John Steinbeck.

While strolling down Alvarado Street, the main drag in downtown Monterey, last Thursday morning, along the city's Path of History, my girlfriend and I noticed this sign commemorating where Casa Bonifacio used to be.

That was apparently a noteworthy adobe structure that was on this spot "prior to it's [sic] relocation" (to make room for the bank you see pictured behind me in the shot).

Go ahead. Look where I'm pointing.

I suppose there's nothing incongruous about a town highlighting a building that hasn't been there in 83 years and, in doing so, failing to find anyone in town who knows how to make pronouns possessive correctly.

(His. Hers. Ours. Theirs. Mine. Yours. Hmm... no apostrophes. Imagine that.)

What I wonder is why the bank (look under my arm) is called "Rabobank" (that is its name) when "Robobank" would be so much cooler.

Maybe it's only cooler to those who know grammar.

1 comment:

  1. At the ball park on the UNR campus, the plaque commemorating the coach the park is named for has a "who's" when they intended "whose." A BRONZE plaque. You think if someone is going to go through all of the trouble and money to have a plaque (or public sign for that matter) made, they'd bother to get someone to proofread the damn thing. I think I shall offer my services..."Tracy Sangster--sign and plaque proofreader. Never be publicly embarrassed again!"

    ReplyDelete

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