So…it’s been a little quiet around here. Funny thing, but it happened to coincide rather neatly with me and TadMack getting together in person to get caught up, reunite with some other grad school friends, and eat pie.
Anyway, there are many reasons why TadMack is awesome, but I wanted to point out that today she managed to A) fly back to Scotland from California; B) make it back in time to attend our online writing group chat; and C) give helpful, encouraging, and cogent commentary on my much-labored-over first chapter, which has now been sent off to Firebrand Literary‘s query holiday. My revision continues apace, with many handwritten notes and much stress about whether the rest of the novel will live up to the first chapter, now that I’ve polished it to a blinding shine.
Things that have NOT been polished to a blinding shine: two examples of Stunningly Egregious Misuse that I have to pass along to you so that you may share in my aggravation. Example the first was seen on a license plate frame (where Egregious Misuse tends to abound):
In case of RAPTURE
CARS YOURS!
To me it sounds like some sort of strange insult: Hey! You! Cars yours! Accompanied, of course, by an appropriately rude gesture, or perhaps the painful flinging of a Matchbox car.
Example the second was spotted as I drove past some kind of industrial supply warehouse alongside the freeway. They had a rather large sign posted advertising
Get Nanomasks here
KILLS VIRUS’
Several things are disturbing here. Firstly, there’s the nanomask thing–I don’t know what a nanomask is, but it sounds like some scary post-apocalyptic accessory. Secondly, there’s that damn apostrophe. So, when I first glanced at this sign, I didn’t see the apostrophe, and it wasn’t quite as bad. I mean, they could have written “KILLS VIRUS” because they couldn’t fit in the final “ES” on the sign, or maybe they were second-language English speakers. But really. This is one of those “greengrocer’s apostrophes” that Lynne Truss rants on about. It’s enough to make me want to be a good grammar vandal, except it would require a rather large ladder and some trespassing.
Sigh.
Oh, YAY, you sent it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAAY! 2009 is the year of courage!
I was going to lament that we had no pictures from our Momentous Events, but –heh– I found one REALLY good one…
*snicker*
…aaand I’m still trying to parse that Rapture Cars thing…
Congrats on sending it off! And TadMack: hope the time adjustment is moving along.
I support grammar vandalism.
Of course TadMack rocks. So does this blog in general, which I’m so behind on but missed while I was offline last week. I’ve got some catchin’ up to do.
Congrats on sending off your chapter!
Thanks, Jules!
And TadMack, not to worry about parsing the Rapture Cars thing. As long as you have your de rigeur fashion nanomask, you should be all set. 😀
A. Fortis, I know what happened with that second sign. The person who was putting up the sign meant to write “Kills Virus’ Slime.” Virus (pronounced vir-oos) is the alien overlord intenting to take over Earth with his noxious slime. So far, the only thing to protect us from the stench of the slime and give us a fair chance of running away is the newly developed Nanomask. It’s not much, but we don’t have alien overlord technology, after all.
That poor sign-maker. Virus nabbed him or her before the sign could be finished.
There’s no plausible excuse for shenanigans of the Rapture-Car sign-maker.
Oh, I hadn’t even considered an alien invasion scenario. I was busy thinking all Mad Max. 😀