east village idiot

intelligent and unintelligible thoughts about life in these five boroughs

« Fire Drill
New York: City of Peeves #56 »

Grammar Police on Patrol: This “Trend” is Not “New”

A fellow blogger has documented many instances of quotation marks being misused - or being used when they are simply not necessary. I’ve seen them on signs all over the place lately. But this widespread error is nothing new. In fact, I determined today that unnecessary quotation marks go as far back as the 19th century. Just take a look at this inscription on Carnegie Hall:

carnegiehall.jpg

This “Music Hall” was constructed in nearly 120 years ago, and its “builders” are all “long gone” and will “never” get to “see” the “great musicians” of our time “play Carnegie Hall.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Grammar Police on Patrol. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Grammar Police on Patrol: This “Trend” is Not “New””

  1. July 11th, 2007 at 10:17 pm

    says:

    Quotes aren’t my problem, but I’ll be damned if I can remember the rules on commas. I’m pretty sure I misuse them about 99% of the time.

  2. July 11th, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    says:

    I call this trend the Zagats trend. Putting quotation marks around every other word makes a review or a description sound “special.”

  3. July 12th, 2007 at 12:19 am

    says:

    I love when people come to my blog and get on my case about grammar, punctuation, etc. They can go “f - themselves.”

    If it bothers you so much, go read another site. Otherwise, shut up and enjoy what you’re here for in the first place. If they want to talk about the actual SUBJECT, that’s one thing.

    I hated my douche bag English teacher in high school, and I certainly don’t need to be graded on it now.

  4. July 12th, 2007 at 6:21 am

    says:

    Maybe back in the robber baron days when all these guys were building public spaces all over the place, “Music Hall” was old, white, rich guy code for “Drug Den,” or “Whore House,” or “Night Club,” or….well you get my drift.

    I think it was just a cover to make them look good for everyone else, but any member of the millionaires club knew what the ” “s really meant.

    “Wink, wink.”

  5. July 12th, 2007 at 10:49 am

    says:

    “what?”

  6. July 12th, 2007 at 11:16 am

    says:

    “Good one!”

  7. July 12th, 2007 at 2:12 pm

    says:

    Yes. “I’ve seen this type of”thing before.

  8. July 13th, 2007 at 8:40 am

    says:

    http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

Leave a Reply