Illiterate Businesses

FREQUENT FLYER

This artifact took up a large part of a full-page newspaper ad today. It's fascinating to think that a new airline could be so gung-ho about the market potential as to think a person might actually fly from Ottawa to Toronto 10 times in one day. And to be so eager to please that they'd only charge $99 for the privilege to do so.

I'm tempted to try it just because I think, based on this ad, that my case would hold up in court ....

I'M NOT REALLY A STICKLER

Whew. I just wanted to get that off my chest. Some of you who email me upon discovering this website are definitely sticklers and that is O.K. by me. But I'm not of a prescriptive bent; I believe language must evolve and that's what I love about English.

I DO take exception to clear-cut ERRORS in the use of English for BUSINESS purposes. Language may be an evolving thing, but spelling, grammar and punctuation errors - especially ones that change or obscure meaning - aren't evolutions. They're mistakes and I would like to obliterate them.

Anyway ... there is a new book out about the evolution of English: "The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left" by David Crystal. Readers of this website might be interested in it. Based on the book's description, it looks like it is meant as a counterpoint to Lynne Truss's "Eats, Shoots & Leaves".

BTW, I learned about this book from one of my favorite websites, the Visual Thesaurus.