Sharp Words

Frequent readers will know that rogue apostrophes (for example, in it’s as a possessive, or else used in a plural) make my teeth hurt.

But lately, I’ve been driving regularly past a sign that on first glance appears to have a rogue apostrophe… but on second glance just might be right, if for the wrong reason.

It’s one of those solar-powered screen signs at the side of the road, with information about roadworks. Its first screen displays:

TRAFFIC CONTROL AHEAD

Its second screen shows:

QUEUE’S LIKELY

And it’s been bothering me a bit, since the more usual phrasing is queues likely. But then why? Why more than one queue? There’s only one line of traffic in each direction trying to get past the traffic lights, so that’s only one queue. Well, alright, there’s another in the opposite direction, but I’m not interested in that one since it’s not the direction I’m travelling in.

So having a sign that reads QUEUE’S LIKELY – in other words, queue is likely – seems to be almost right…

Or maybe it’s just me.

PS – When I titled my last post ‘Back Briefly’, I didn’t mean that I was only back for one post and then gone again for another long while (at least, I hope not)… It was just meant to be a reference to it being Microfiction Monday.

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No real excuses for the quiet of the past couple of weeks. I’ve disappointed myself by not keeping up the blogging routine I’d started to get into, but I’ve been felled by the mid-January blues which usually follow the early-January enthusiasm.

Anyway, Microfiction Monday is always a good excuse to post something! And I had to work a bit on this one to get it down under 140 characters, which was a good exercise.

Being a doll stuck in one position wasn’t fun. After five years gazing up a cheerleader’s skirt, it was no wonder Betty’s eyes were so big.

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Some numerical links today (it was a coincidental connection to start with, but too good not to use):

• “10 Ways to Frame Your Words” – Confident Writing – another excellent blog post from Joanna Young, about how to present your writing by ‘framing’ it
• “36 Poetry Writing Tips” – Writing Forward – Melissa Donovan shares some great tips for improving your poetry writing; some of them I follow already, some need to be added to my personal habits
• Friday Flash 55 – Mr. Knowitall – meme time! write a story in 55 words
• “75 Books Every Writer Should Read” – Online Universities – I shamelessly stole this link from Magical Words, because it’s a damn good list… and I really need to read some more of these (*hugs my Strunk & White*)

And as always, just for fun…

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I really shouldn’t let bad grammar in song lyrics get to me, but I can’t help it!

I do listen to an awful lot of music; I have my own personal selection on my MP3 player during the day, and listen to the radio during car journeys and to wake myself up in the mornings.

Sometimes I can manage to ignore the grammatical errors, particularly if the lyric is indistinct, or not repeated in the song. Others make me grind my teeth though – one of those that’s been annoying me for a very long time is ‘between you and I’, in Hungry Eyes from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack (and probably other songs too).

Current irritants are (and believe me, they’re not songs I listen to voluntarily, nor would I even without the bad grammar):

• ‘I’m sorry I misleaded you’ – Take Me Back by Tinchy Stryder
• ‘It may not mean nothing to y’all’ – Forever by Drake and a whole other bunch of rappers

Grrrr. Argh. Anyone got any personal annoyances when it comes to ungrammatical lyrics?

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After the divorce, she spent all of his money on shoes and beauty treatments – no more dish-water-hands, dowdy, down-at-heel life for her!

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This one is a quick scrawl in response to this week’s Sunday Scribblings prompt.

A New Leaf
I am the blank page.

I tempt you and I challenge you
and I terrify you.

Pick up your pen and write on me.
I dare you.

Write me a poem, write me a story,
Write me your day’s deeds and your to-do list,
Write me your dreams.
And make me something new.

© 2010 C Sharp

[Sunday Scribblings]

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