« First Time Reading | Main | Searching for Logic »
April 18, 2005
Mavenry on Crack (or just me on crack?)
Damn. After I posted this Mark Liberman informed me that the site I'm criticising is in fact a parody site. Sorry for the misplaced indignation - these are crazy times.
----------------------
Linguist mocks crazy old mavens.
Mavens go insane:
If we are not mistaken, 'web site' ought to be 'Web-site', since 'Web' is a proper noun, 'sitemeter' is simply a monstrous mangle that should at the very least be capitalised, and the spelling 'humor' is one more example of the kind of linguistic bigotry that demands the English-speaking world accede to the vulgar American way of doing things.
Plus check out their endorsement from famous racist Kilroy-Silk:
It is time to rescue Great Britain from the hands of foreigners, and S.P.E.C.S. have risen to the challenge.
They also lambast BBC newsreader Huw Edwards (who is Welsh) for splitting infinitives:
We have always insisted that being a non-native is no excuse for this vandalism of the airwaves, and we shall be monitoring the speech of Mr. Edwards very closely indeed.
And I have always insisted that being old and paranoid is no excuse for this sort of nonsense. These particular fellow-citizens of mine are about more than the usual self-important and badly-researched pedantry, and I hereby call them on it. I'm not sure we have much choice but to tolerate it, but ignore it, and your children will be next.
Posted by logican at April 18, 2005 12:01 PM
Trackback Pings
The trackback address for this entry is:
http://www.logicandlanguage.net/trakbak.cgi/46
Comments
S.P.E.C.S. is a parody site -- just not a very funny one, at least to my taste.
Posted by: Mark Liberman at April 18, 2005 12:55 PM
Crikey, I couldn't tell. Looks like some of the people who signed their guestbook couldn't either. Thanks for the heads-up.
Posted by: Gillian Russell at April 18, 2005 01:12 PM
I am of the firm conviction that humour and satire are the best weapons against prejudice and ignorance, and it's in that spirit that S.P.E.C.S. was formed.
Posted by: Dave Rattigan at April 20, 2005 11:21 AM