Single link silliness.

October 14, 2008 10:25 PM

The "best" of the internet.
posted by pedstel (44 comments total)

Nice post. "I" like it.
posted by Manhasset at 10:27 PM on October 14, 2008

"Flagged" as "awesome".
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:29 PM on October 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thanks mom "for life" literally made me spew my beverage all over the monitor. I thought that was hyperbole. It can happen.
posted by mayfly wake at 10:29 PM on October 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

"Great post."
posted by the_bone at 10:41 PM on October 14, 2008

"no, i'm ahead of you there - it's "quotation marks" all the way down"
posted by pyramid termite at 10:44 PM on October 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

there's got to be a grammatical term for that sentence.
posted by mayfly wake at 10:48 PM on October 14, 2008

That's "hilarious."
posted by Space Kitty at 10:53 PM on October 14, 2008

Pretty Good Grocery is a shitty name, even without the quotation marks. And the way the grocer seems to be shrugging in either apathy or apology isn't helping.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 11:02 PM on October 14, 2008

please
posted by blasdelf at 11:05 PM on October 14, 2008 [5 favorites]

Tom saw this on Isle of Wight (which I had to look up)....

That's "embarrassing" for him
posted by mattoxic at 11:05 PM on October 14, 2008

This kind of thing is all over "English" language advertisements in "Japan". Has anyone seen an example of a text book that shows quotation marks as a substitute for other emphasis marks like bold type face or underlines? Is there a source for this style other than stupid people?
posted by mexican at 11:10 PM on October 14, 2008

Pretty Good Grocery is a shitty name, even without the quotation marks
Isn't the name from some folksy radio show or something?
posted by bunglin jones at 11:10 PM on October 14, 2008

I worked at a cafe for a guy who misused quotation marks constantly. In response to him, I added "Fresh 'Squeezed' Orange Juice" to the big menu on the wall. That was several years ago, and it was still up last time I checked.
posted by brundlefly at 11:12 PM on October 14, 2008

Even if he can't find his "dog", it's still a funny story. Allison and Bert aren't the only ones who stepped over the threshold unencumbered, but that didn't stop Flem! Oh, no it didn't! My favorite was the confit de canard, and though still a bit salty, cheese flowed freely enough.
posted by sluglicker at 11:18 PM on October 14, 2008

Oh dear. I'm really laughing to hard to come up with a witty use of quotes of my own. Very good.
posted by adamt at 11:21 PM on October 14, 2008

My husband's great-aunt used to send him letters and whenever she mentioned me, she'd put my name in quotation marks: How's "Amy" doing?, Tell "Amy" I said Hi, Give "Amy" my best. She was a nice lady and I'm sure she meant no harm, but it nearly drove me insane.
posted by amyms at 11:24 PM on October 14, 2008

I'm setting a magazine right now. If I could strip all "unnecessary" quotations "marks", it'd be a couple pages shorter (cringe).
posted by _dario at 11:29 PM on October 14, 2008

Doh. I could have just used "witty". Bugger.
posted by adamt at 11:30 PM on October 14, 2008

I "hate" to be the one to call "double". But "it" was nested in another FP"P" so it's "OK by me."

(suppressing urge to use blink-tag)
posted by not_on_display at 11:33 PM on October 14, 2008

"related" post's
Tangentially related "nukyoolur" post.
posted by not_on_display at 11:38 PM on October 14, 2008

What is a pig buckle? Fun post. "Thanks."
posted by heyho at 11:46 PM on October 14, 2008

Oh man, the misuse of quotation marks in English signs, labels and advertising here in Japan is rampant. Maybe I should start a blog about that.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:05 AM on October 15, 2008

Ah, should've read the comments more carefully, as I see mexican already pointed out the Japan thing upthread.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:08 AM on October 15, 2008

bunglin jones - ralph's pretty good grocery is a fictional sponsor on garrison keillor's a prarie home companion. their motto is: "if you "can't" get "it" at ralph's, you can "probably" get along "without" it". (additional quotes added for emphasis)
posted by camdan at 12:29 AM on October 15, 2008

"Nice" post. "Really."
posted by From Bklyn at 12:45 AM on October 15, 2008

Mine seem a little ,,loose,,
posted by Jofus at 12:57 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thanks, camdan.
posted by bunglin jones at 1:32 AM on October 15, 2008

I am wondering... some of those pictures aren't totally misses to me. I can see why they put words in marks. Isn't quotation marks, per definition, marks that announce the text within being a QUOTE?

Which means, writing:

- The "best" food in town. -

Is a way to indicate that someone says the food is the best in town. I know that most of us would think "best" in quotes means best-but-not-meaning-best, but still, it is not wrong. When/how did quotation marks stop being quotation marks and start being irony marks?
posted by gmm at 2:08 AM on October 15, 2008

I'm reading this doing "air quotes"
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:18 AM on October 15, 2008

"Pretty Good" Grocery isn't misusing quotes. Or isn't necessarily doing so.

Pretty Good Grocery: A grocery store that's pretty good.

"Pretty Good" Grocery: A grocery store that has playfully downplayed themselves by using a phrase their customers use to describe it.

It's the "That 70s Show" of grocery stores.

(Bedford's "Special Places" isn't a misuse either, if "Special Places" is some term they are referring to. I'd like to see a blog like this run by a professional punctuationist.)
posted by DU at 4:48 AM on October 15, 2008

I wish people would use fewer quotation marks and more air guitar solos to get their points across.
posted by aftermarketradio at 5:59 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

gmm writes "Isn't quotation marks, per definition, marks that announce the text within being a QUOTE?"

Your example might work if it was more like:

"The best food in town"
  -Local Newspaper

But without any attribution, and only a single word quoted, well, it becomes irony. The basic misunderstanding of whether or not this construct is correct is the root of the problem, and the reason there is a proliferation of poorly abused quotation marks and apostrophes.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:15 AM on October 15, 2008

The again, I could be "wrong".
posted by caution live frogs at 6:16 AM on October 15, 2008

the best "food" in town
posted by pyramid termite at 7:19 AM on October 15, 2008

It's "blogs" like this that make me "love" the "internets".
posted by colinmarshall at 10:35 AM on October 15, 2008

I didn't see a problem with:

Great Dishcloths
"Nice gift"

The quoted part is simply an unattributed comment made by a (deluded, cheap-ass, unwelcome at parties) purchaser of a Great Dishcloth.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:36 AM on October 15, 2008

Given a few more years of misusage, the quotation mark *will* become a standard, correct way to indicate emphasis.

...just like asterisks. ::cough::

(Double-colons have always been okay.)
posted by LordSludge at 11:24 AM on October 15, 2008

"Yes" we have "pig" "buckles" requires some kind of sentence diagram to assess irony, as I can't figure it out.
posted by crapmatic at 11:51 AM on October 15, 2008

I was told that the use of quotations for emphasis was a British thing.
Any truth to this?
posted by Richard Daly at 12:33 PM on October 15, 2008

I saw a vaguely shaped...item... in an opaque wrapper in a vending machine out in Oswego, Il at a gas station that said: AA02 “hamburger sandwich”

I still get the chills.



(Oh and “Bob” Dobbs. I’m “mad” too. etc.)
posted by Smedleyman at 1:35 PM on October 15, 2008

"."
posted by swift at 2:42 PM on October 15, 2008

Theory: grocers' quotes may have originated as a means to link either word-of-mouth or radio advertising to products, such as

Shoes Shined "while you wait"

May have begun its life as a catchphrase or jingle and lived on in the saturation marketing of the sandwichboard. Perhaps by imitating the structure other vendors hoped to split the market and the meme was too powerful a mechanism which gave a "voice" to what was otherwise just sign text.

Demonstrating evidence for this theory is beyond the scope of my attention span, though.
posted by abulafa at 5:07 PM on October 15, 2008

Zagat's restaurant guide books feature sentences composed out of fragments of their contributors' reviews, eg:

Werbenjaegermanjensen's Seafood features the "best locally sourced seafood" at a "price that's hard to beat" with "outstanding views of the municipal dump" and has an "outstanding wine list" with "many fine examplars" of "Welsh claret" and "peppermint-flavored" Burgundies.

So, you know, there's that.
posted by kcds at 5:41 PM on October 15, 2008

"Just" here inverting the rest of the quotes"
posted by samsara at 7:59 PM on October 15, 2008