shawThings.net : a collection of shaw things ...

Spotted this while driving and just had to follow until I could get a snap. You've got to admire the ingenuity. It appears to work too.

Menus (of the type found in bistros and restaurants, not websites or software) are often a source of humorous typos. Last night's trip to the local pub was no exception. The first was "chilllis" (with three l's), although given the font they were using this was hard to spot and can be forgiven. "Banga's and Mash" though was an interesting variation on a theme, managing to cram a mis-spelling and an apostrophe violation into the one word.

The context for this one only adds to the humour. Here's another one.

The most common apostrophe errors would have to be those involving "its" vs. "it's". I spotted these two while out and about. The first is classic because the company does presentation. What's also humorous / disappointing is that both are professionally prepared signs. Come on signwriters, lift your game.

Naruto plays basketball. I missed his last game so I inquired as to how he went. His team won. Then I asked if he scored any points. "No." he replied, "I had three shots and I missed them both." Much hilarity in the kitchen. To be fair, he did correct himself pretty quickly.

I couldn't find my usual wheat bread in the grocery store today. Looking for an alternative, I found Sorj Bread. I was a little disappointed in who it was intended for: the "diet concious".

We visited a chocolate shop as part of our trip to New Zealand. I'm not sure they describe one of their products quite as they intended.

I like words and in particular unusual ones or incorrect ones. The attached image is of my barber's price list. It contains many examples of probably the most common grammatical error: incorrect apostrophes. Normally I find these annoying, but these are so egregious and there's so many in one place that it's become my favourite example. I will continue to have my hair cut there while they keep the sign.

I didn't know this, but the third Monday in January is Martin Luther King Day in the USA. Turns out he's one of only three people who have a national holiday in the USA. (The other two are George Washington and Jesus.) Inspired, I searched the web and (not surprisingly) found you can download all of his speeches. I tried out the famous 'I Have A Dream" speech. It runs for 16 minutes and covers a lot of ground. Somewhat surprisingly "I Have A Dream" is not a prominent theme. It's a well structured, thought provoking speech that covers a lot of social justice issues. It also features some rhetorical devices, which no doubt contributed to Dr. King's reputation as a fine speaker. So why not celebrate MLK Day by listening to a full speech (rather than just a brief excerpt).

I saw a For Sale today containing the words "sort after position". Immediately I knew something was wrong, but it took a couple of seconds to figure out what it was.