Why a Tittle?

A Tittle Fest for the Ages

2009-09-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten about this card I bought Stephanie when her son Greg graduated high school.

I got nothing to say.

Except....

Greg and Stephanie worked so very hard on getting Greg to his graduation day. I am so proud of both of them. Greg has just enough challenges that he needs that little extra push, and I think a lesser parent would have ended up with a far less accomplished kid.

What's that got to do with tittles?? Oh, just everything, I think. Greg would never write like this. Never. His mom wouldn't let him. But if the world does it, that's just wicked peachy.

You have no idea the load I shoulder in this life.

Speaking of Dumb...

2009-09-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

For someone who thinks this stuff is not all that important, Harry has developed a decent eye for it. Here's one from one of his son Jason's book. It brings to the fore, yet again, on of the key fronts in the war against literacy.

I like to call it: THE WAR ON YOUTH.

Not so long ago, Camel cigarettes got hammered for using a hip cartoon character to promote its products. Well what the heck is this? I mean, can we assume that the editors and publishers of this book understood that their target audience is still impressionable? After all, they didn't choose to be bricklayers or electrical engineers, now did they? THEY ARE PROFESSIONAL EDITORS. They are expected to understand stuff like, um, I dunno, ELEMENTARY EDITING!

Who could blame the kid who upon reading this book suddenly lurched off of the straight and narrow and began a life of borderline illiteracy?

Not me, folks. Definitely not me.

This kids gets it!!

2009-09-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

Memorized the Sesame Street song about something that gets so little love around here: The Capital "I":

Here's the classic original.

I WIN!! I WIN!!

2009-08-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

Ah, sweet, sweet vindication...

Here's a wiki page dedicated entirely to the discussion of a particular character's use of ill-placed lower case "i's". So, I'm right. This DOES matter. And here's my proof:

http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Lowercase_i

I'll take apologies as cash donations, although I do enjoy handmade greeting cards...

Tittles "R" Fun!! (Part II)

2009-08-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

As I've already pointed out, the marketing world has gone absolutely ga-ga over the hipness and unadulterated fun of the misused tittle. They are so easy to find these days that I almost didn't restart this blog (Did I hear clapping? Not. Funny.). It felt as though the horse had left the barn -- and run down the street -- where it found a rocket ship -- which it took to another galaxy. But I digress.

I went to lunch with my daughter and her friend, and while we were waiting for a table we went to the Hallmark store, and learned that tittles are where it's at for all of the cool teens.

Word!

And what small child -- still learning their alphabet -- their caps and smalls mind you -- wouldn't want fun shoes from these folks!!!

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun fun, right?? I see tittles, I think "Fun!!", don't you? Tittles can make ANYTHING festive and light!!

Well, almost anything...

You say potato...

2009-08-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

So Harry tells me the other day that I need to "get over it" basically, and Harry has known me for most of my life, so his words have weight, frankly.

He explains that language evolves, and therefore these sort of usage changes are inevitable -- whether we like it or not. He cites some of the work his dad has done (Morris Freilich, professor emeritus from Northeastern Univversity -- an anthropologist whose observations are fascinating even when clearly wrong). Harry writes insightfully about language and origins...

Natural Languages "evolve" over time and this process rarely has any logic or reason to it. This applies to vocabulary as well as punctuation. If you look at an English book from 500 years ago, the language looks very different. There is nothing logically wrong with the phrase "wherefore art thou", but this would now be meaningless if we didn't happen to read Shakespeare.

English dictionaries are written based on common usage (after the fact). They are updated every year based on frequency of the spoken and written words. It is all based on a consensus of what is out there. This applies to punctuation as well.

The evolution of language is often related to people finding new things that look/sound more interesting. After a while, some things stick and become part of the language.

Great stuff, right? But then he JOINS "The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks" because, apparently, some changes in uses are more important than others.

Ouch. That left a mark, Harry.

But he did send me this little bit of child abuse, which makes it all better, frankly.

iTunes, iPhones, iCarly and the like...

2009-08-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

Following up on the deeper meaning of tittles....

Putting a lowercase "i" in front of a word has become shorthand for suggesting that a thing is somehow cool, tekkie, and Internet related. Apple didn't invent this idea, but they own it now -- a very clever marketing move.

But it messes with the language, as this reporter points out:

This is how language changes, and the Web, with its pressures for writing that is tight, short, and skimmable, is a force for change. In print, the limits are clear: Some things won't fit on the page. The situation online is subtler. It is theoretically possible to run articles that go on and on. But on an entry page (the "front page" of an online publication), space is as tight as on its ink-on-paper counterpart.

But it's worth noting that the Web headline for the story was, its first letter aside, actually more of a traditional hard-news headline than what ran in print. The print headline was more a "flavor headline." It suggested what happened but had no subject – no "doer" – or predicate verb.

By contrast "iPhone Users Plagued by Software Problems" would have made sense, grammatically at least, to a traditional green-eyeshade copy desk of a century ago. They might have had a little trouble understanding "software problems," though. They might have thought that "software problems" were what happened on a weekend when you had houseguests and you ran out of bath towels.

I like to make fun of myself and my obsessions in this blog, but this serious discussion about how changes in convention can lead to changes in language sort of strikes at the heart of what made me notice "tittle" in the first place...

Home Depot Wants ME!!

2009-08-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

I got an e-mail from Home Depot today asking me to join their do-it-yourselfer club. After making the standard Groucho Marx observation that I would by definition refuse to join any club that would have me as a member, I signed up.

Those of you less than handy with tools probably wonder if these sorts of handyman projects are safe. Before you go there, ask yourself a more fundamental question.

Is Home Depot safe?

Vacation = Respite, right?

2009-08-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

That's what they tell me anyway. Go far away, where there's limited Internet access preferrably. Forget your worries and cares. Relax and get away from it all. In fact, if you are tormented by the bad use of tittles in the popular culture, go to a foriegn country! Yah, that's it. Go where they don't even speak English.

Ahhhhhh. I can feel the relaxation just sort of washing over me in warm waves....

So we went to Mexico, Stephanie and I, and escaped to a place where the tittles could not find me. We strolled on a perfect moonlit evening down to the waterfront to have a nice meal. Italian perhaps?

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

"Sorry, honey, I. Just. Can't. "

"But Bob, it looks nice."

"Doesn't matter, it's a principle thing. "

"It's a stupid thing, if you ask me. " (I never realized that sometimes you can actually hear a person's eyes roll.)

"I didn't ask you. And besides, I saw a cool looking sports bar back there..."

Oh, it's a just drop of milk!!

2009-08-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

See, to me it looks suspiciously like that drop of milk is NOT random. Far from it in fact. It's screaming like a little beacon to all who value ending the corruption of young minds...

This sort of brings me to an interesting point: Stephanie thinks I'm getting a tad carried away with this. She has worked with small children for many years, and doesn't think this is nearly the big deal that I make it. I suspect something very different is going on.

She's a plant.

She's marrying me to try to stop my crusade. My message: Honey, I love you, but it's NOT GONNA WORK!!!

Thanks to William for signing up to the cause. He adds "The only thing more upsetting than this sad little tittle is the contents of something called a "Milk Smoothie"."

Yah, I'm not exactly dying for one either, are you? And then, if you look closely, the flavor is peach and canteloupe. Yum. The word "rancid" comes to mind. As in: "How can I curdle this milk? I know, I'll add some peach and canteloupe...."

That's ALL I'm Saying!!

2009-08-16T17:59:00.001-07:00

There are horrors and there are HORRORS. This is an example of a "cute 'n fun!!" tittle. Stephen took the time to do an actual screen shot from a youtube video.

Does that get his "too much time on his hands" factor above mine?

I'm thinking yes, but who am I to judge...

DAViD

2009-08-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

This comes from Bethany at the "blog" of unnecessary quotation marks.

While the government is talking euthanasia, can we sign up "DAViD's" editor? Umm. That was a joke, okay? PLEEEEZE don't report me to the White House. I'm more "beefy" than "fishy" anyway.

And what if your whole life...

2009-08-14T13:32:00.001-07:00

... is based on LIES!!!!

I'll bet these people think this is cute!! The dumbing down of America for kicks!! (although the dude with the spiky hair does more of that than any of this does, but I digress).

What is WRONG with these people!! Do they not have "I"s?

Let's boycott. Readers of this blog (if there are any): Don't go to FRiDAYS unless you're really hungry and there's nothing else around!!! BE STRONG!!

Now, to the biggest problem: Commercial Use!!

2009-08-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

This pic is a little old, but representative of a large and annoying trend: Hip tittles. It seems as though marketing types have fallen in love with the dot on the "i" as a cool and friendly new look. It's spreading like wildfire.

It pretty much means that we're all doomed to looking at these ill-placed lowercase "i"s forever.

Once comething permeates the Madison Avenue culture, it starts to "look" right to people.

Eccch.

Where tittles are king...

2009-08-14T09:53:00.001-07:00

Steph and I like traveling. As part of all that, we end up in many of the little specialty shops that sell, essentially, crap. Some of it's clever. Most of it is at least a little overpriced. Frequently it's fun to look at.

These places are ground zero for hand-written, misused tittles.

These are from Maine, I think.

Tittles "R" Fun

2009-08-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

The next generation is pretty much doomed when it comes to dotting "i"s inappropriately. It's almost a cliches to see stuff like this now. I often wonder why educators don't spit the bit when they see this stuff.

Sigh.

I'm baack!!

2009-08-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

The siutation has only gotten worse, I'm afraid, as unnecessary tittles have become a trademark for "FUN!!" This needs to be documented. I'm here to serve. This will be a busy blog...

Otherwise very literate signs...

2007-12-09T10:10:00.001-08:00

...can show the disease as well. This one was at the local market. It's well-written, very comprehensible, and displays good penmanship.

AND YET IS HAS A THIRD GRADE FRICKIN' ERROR !!!!!

Not to WiNE, but....

2007-12-09T09:59:00.000-08:00

Stephanie and I were buying some WiNE the other day when we stumbled across a cornucopia of unneeded tittles. We could have stayed for an hour just capturing the variety instances, but we decided just to get a few representative samples.

Some days I start to wonder why this is sooooo easy....

Great Food, Great MUSiC

2007-12-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

(this one is a little blurry)

Steph and I went to see Les Miserables up at the North Shore Music Theatre recently and stopped at the Wild Horse Cafe for dinner first. Great place. Also features LiVE MUSiC apparently.

Again, we find an example with amazing purity, every letter uppercase except the "i"s. A true classic. Embarrassingly excellent.

Hall of Fame Quality

2007-12-06T13:24:00.000-08:00

Matthew sends us this gem from Homer City, PA. It has lOWERCASEl issues. It has apostrophe abuse, and yes, our local favorite: A badly placed tittle!

Lovely. We're all doomed.

TRiBUTE TO A FAllEN HERO

2007-10-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

William points out that one of his lowercasel posts fits here, too.

A stunningly illiterate tribute to one of America's finest.

On the topic of "large" pizzas and such...

2007-10-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Let me say first that when Steph sends me photos of her tittles, that's just a good day all around...

These two signs are on the window of a pizza place in Agawam, MA, near Six Flags. They are good examples of the "every letter but one" being uppercase. Note on the second picture that the author decided the words in all caps don't start with a tittle, but can have one in the middle. Shall we call this a middle tittle?

But these great tittles are just a distraction from the better story on this day:

Have you ever ordered a "large" pizza in Western MA? Where I come from (and at every national chain), "large" means a big, round pizza with 8 slices, right?

Not in Western MA, apparently. Steph had budgeted $30-40 for pizza for her son Matt's party at Six Flags (we were tailgating), but it cost about $100 -- because out there a "large" is a 3-foot-by-4-foot monstrosity.

We ordered 4.

For 15 people.

It was Matt's 14th birthday, but we're still trying to figure out whether we'll need a U-Haul to help him bring the leftovers to college...

BRiNG 'EM ON!!!

2007-10-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Steph and I were just as happy as these folks when watching the Sox punch their ticket to the WORLD SERiES last night. Or maybe they punched their TiCKET. I'd have to ask. Were it not for the lowercase "n" in BOUnD, the perfection of these examples would be breathtaking.

Go SOX!!!

First Anniversary Fish?

2007-09-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

Stephanie noticed something fishy about the new Chet's sign we saw the other day. She thinks maybe the first anniversary for a fish and chips plate might be a little ... foul?

Anyway, Chet returns with a vengeance. The "i" in ANNiVERSARY is new, and better made than the older "i"s in FiSH and CHiPS.

Quoth Steph:

"Can't be sure if Chet's does have either those customer or co-workers. But one thing is certain, they continue to have appalling letter casing skills. This tempting one takes the Tittle Trifecta Trophy...

And what does 'first anniversary fish and chips' mean anyway? Can't be good...

Think they'd find the humor if we suggested that the eatery be re-written as CHET'S DiNER???"

True that.

Literacy Campaign

2007-08-31T05:52:00.001-07:00

EUREKA!!!! I finally get why this happens! We teach our kids to do it as part of their summer reading program. Maybe it's an intimidation thing. Maybe an uppercase "I" in and around those other uppercase letters would scare little kids.

Arrgh.

Exercising Bad Capitalization

2007-08-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

You could argue that this health club owner is just exercising a God-given right to bad capitalization. But we're not here to be nice, now are we? There are several letters here that are the wrong case (lowercase, because most are upper), but this has examples of my two faves: The "L" in "ClASS" and the "I" in "PriZES".

Certainly not an example of fitness in signmaking....

Exotic Meat

2007-08-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

This one is a little hard to figure. Why only one lowercase "i"? But then I've never tasted lion before, so I decided to check it out anyway.

Tasted like chicken. Go figure.

Where to Begin....

2007-08-21T11:01:00.001-07:00

I can vouch for the food at Chet's, but...

FR NT? If you guessed "FRONT", you lose. It means "Friday Night". And Chet clearly broke a sweat on those lowercase "i"s. I'm thinking hand drawn AND hand cut.

Clean Shirts "r" Us

2007-08-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a garden-variety example of the affliction. The part that leaves me in stunned amazement is that these bad "i"s are obviously hand made. The owner the sign must look down at their lettering kit and mumble: "Those idiots. They didn't put any "i"s in here. Guess I'll just make one."

It follows that the thing that comes between the "H" and the "K" is a lOWERCASE L in their minds.

I'm still a little curious about the actual manufacture of the dotted "i" though. Do you use scissors? Tape? Do you have to go to the store for clear cellophane?