A (very frustrating) stroll through CVS

I don’t think I need to say much here.  But I’ll just add a couple of quotes from the dictionary and a grammar book. ‘Nuff said.

 

Exhibit A:

Definition of DO-RAG: a kerchief worn especially to cover the hair

(source: M-W.com)

EXHIBIT B:

The apostrophe has three uses:

1. to form possessives of nouns

2. to show the omission of letters

3. to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters

(and, therefore, “yours”–along with his, hers, and its, does NOT take an apostrophe!)

source: Purdue OWL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/

 

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

http://leftaction.com/action/dear-tea-party-use-spell-check

What the writer of this failed to note is that, sadly, logic and sense are rarely required to be persuasive.  Just think of bumper stickers.  I love bumper stickers, but let’s face it.  All you really need is a catch phrase.  It doesn’t have to be spelled right, it doesn’t have to be true, it doesn’t have to make sense.

Slogans just really need to be memorable and to make some sort of sense to enough people that they start spreading them.  Calling someone a fascist or a socialist requires absolutely no evidence, as long as the speaker has enough of an audience to spread the word.  Most Americans don’t even know what socialism and fascism really are, they just know (or think) that these words are the enemy of democracy and to be accused of such beliefs is almost as bad as not putting a “support the troops” sticker on your car.

If we all thought that reliability and truth were achieved through spell check, there would be no Kash-n-Karry grocery stores, Froot Loops, or Jell-o in America.

So when you want to persuade people, don’t rely on intellect and reason. After all, intellectual, reasonable people are these days equated with elitism and snobbery.  And nobody wants that.