Oh Goody! A typo in the NYTimes!

It probably reflects very poorly on me that I get my kicks from seeing typos in venerable newspapers such as the New York Times. But whatever. I can't help that warm and tingly feeling that creeps up on me when I realize the editors who fill the country's most coveted editorial positions aren't perfect.

So let's celebrate this article, which contains this typo:
Ms. Block went to the company’s Web site and filed an application online, which many others had not. By doing do, her application went directly into the company’s system.

Sounds like something that transpires when my boyfriend is in the bathroom, right?

It's gonna be a good weekend. I can just tell.

The French Taxi Cab

Well tonight was interesting, in a things-come-full-circle kind of way. The day was dreary, rainy and cold - apparently now it's cool to just go from Summer straight to Winter and skip Fall completely. After work, some coworkers and I headed to a bar to watch the Phillies game. I left there around 5:40 to meet some college girlfriends for dinner, and I could not for the life of me get a cab. The ones with lights on didn't stop. The ones without lights on didn't stop. And there were long lulls where nary a taxi was even in sight. On BROAD STREET. A MAIN ARTERY of the city.

I was perplexed. So I walked, hoping to find a taxi as I strode, but my search was in vain. I ended up at 8th and Pine, about 8 blocks away from my final destination, and decided a cab wasn't even worth it at that point. So I made it to dinner flustered, but okay. We sat around at the restaurant for a while talking, and then headed back to my friends' apartment to watch La Vie en Rose, the move about French singer Edith Piaf. It was great. Piaf has an intriguing life and a great voice, and of course all songs sound so much more flowy and dramatic in French than they do in English.

I didn't stay for the whole thing, as I didn't want to have a late night. So another girl who was there offered to drive me home and we left. But as we were driving away, we noticed the car was clunking along making a sound like we were driving on ground up road. So we pulled over at 2nd and Washington, in South Philly, and sure enough my friend had a flat tire. Drat.

I sat with her for a while as she called Triple AAA, and wondered what a nice Jewish girl was doing at the intersection of 2nd and Washington, next to Snockey's crab shack, waiting for Triple AAA to come and rescue my friend's Honda Civic Hybrid. My friend told me I could go, in fact, she insisted I go. So we called a cab and it came within 5 minutes.

And the whole drive back to my apartment, the cab driver sang. In French.

Grammar Gripe of the Week

A large part of my job is writing career advice, so I pay attention to all the career advice that's out there. (And there is A LOT of it online. Seriously. When I started my job search I can't believe I didn't just google "resume tips". It would have been extremely smart of me.)

Sometimes, the advice is good. Sometimes it downright sucks. And occasionally I find people who can't write for their lives. I would never take career advice from the person who wrote this, as part of an article about resume mistakes:

1. Ambiguous Job Objective: A career objective is the most important part of the resume. A lot depends upon your career objective. It tells the employer regarding your goals and what exactly you want to be. The mistake what people commit is that they write lengthy sentences. No one really has the time to read such long statements. So, keep it as short as possible. Your objective should be simple and easy to understand.

Not only is it painful to read, it's riddled with mistakes. "It tells the employer regarding your goals and what exactly you want to be"? "The mistake what people commit"? Really? PLEASE read your writing before you post it.

This isn't grammar related but the advice also sucks. Resume objectives are redundant. The employer already knows you want a job with them - you wouldn't be applying otherwise. Don't waste resume space saying that. Instead, write a professional statement summing up your strengths and background in 2 or 3 lines. SHEESH.

Grammar Gripe of the Week

From a website I came across:

She started her own Intern company, with the goal of raising internship awareness and connecting student’s with their future in 2006.

Can you spot the mistake? I sure hope you can. Apostrophe mistakes are some of my BIGGEST pet peeves! Not only that, but the sentence is clunky, "future" should be plural for consistency, and I think "in 2006" is a misplaced modifier. If their futures were in 2006, I wonder what they're doing now? Gah.

Obama and the Peace Prize

I really do like Barack Obama - he works hard for his initiatives, he frequently addresses the public to keep us abreast of issues and include us in the democratic process, and it goes without saying that he's well spoken. But I wonder if he really deserved the Nobel Peace Prize that he was awarded today...

Does anyone else have thoughts?

Scenes from the City

So I am taking a photography class at the Fleisher Art Memorial in Bella Vista, and it's been a good time. I am learning all about the different symbols on my camera, like the little face symbol and the mountain symbol and the Eiffel-Tower-with-the-moon-behind-it symbol. (Really, who designs these things?) Anyway, I wanted to share some of the photographs I've taken recently. So here they are!

This is a pretty design on a Hookah at Leila Cafe.

LOVE this picture of broken glass in a window on South Street.

There are mosaics like these all over the South Street area.

I like the colors in this one... the yellow against the blue sky.

Again with the yellow and the sky.

I used the Tungsten setting to make this one really blue.

Tried my best to get the pinky-purply sky in this one.

Playing around with digital macro - my new favorite setting on my camera.

Scenes from Rittenhouse.

Travelling on Septa. Exhilarating.

Whizzing past a stop on the R3.

Grammar Gripe of the Week

Because I am the grammar police, I constantly obsess over how much I despise people who can't speak English. And by that I don't mean native speakers of other languages - they're okay. It's people who were brought up speaking English who still can't speak English that get me. I admit I occasionally make a mistake, what person frantically running their fingers over a keyboard doesn't? But chronic mistake makers really get my goat.

One thing that's been bothering me lately is people who don't know common phrases. Here is an example, from someone's Facebook status (no names, sorry if the person who had this status reads this):

So-and-so is not to sure what this day in tales.

I first thought this must have been a joke. Of course the person knows that it's "entails" and not "in tales". I mean, what does "in tales" even mean in this context? It makes no sense. But I don't think the person was joking. Another one that bothers me is when people say "could of" or "would of" when they really mean "could have" or "would have".

When did we lose sight of our own language? Oh, it depresses me.

I think I'll make this grammar gripe thing a regular feature, as I really like pointing out people's mistakes. For other grammar nerds (and members of the police force) I'll also direct you to another woman who does this, The Sentence Sleuth.