The art of language is slowly dying away
THE man who was fined for ‘wreckless driving’ recently may have wondered what the newspaper headline above a report of his conviction was meant to convey: a punishment for not causing mayhem on the roads? And whether Dunnes Stores (or should that be Dunne’s Stores?) abandoned the copy-writer who produced a seasonal page wishing ‘All Our Customer’s A Happy Christmas’ will probably remain as much a secret as the author of the Jurys Doyle Hotels title. You don’t need to be Lynne Truss, celebrated author of ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’ to realise that spelling and punctuation are important even in these days of casual speech and writing.
Always ready to challenge the offer of a Free Gift on the grounds that all gifts are by their nature free, I have been known to wonder in a supermarket if what is promoted as a ‘Sherry Triffle’ is likely to be value for money, while seeing a billboard offering ‘a bowel of soup’ made me swerve from the hotel gateway to seek another inn.
