Grammatical error is ‘Show-Me State’ injustice
April 23rd, 2008By Justin Lopinot
Though I now make a living in the world of issues and reputation management, I’ll always consider myself an editor. Over the past 10 years, I’ve edited thousands and thousands of newspaper articles, headlines, magazine stories, brochures and other works of brilliance. I’m fallible – don’t get me wrong. I still make mistakes from time to time. And I rarely criticize in a mean way. But I cannot always hide my frustrations when I see a major typo or grammatical error. I heard some deplorable news this week that pushed me to the edge. I’m at the breaking point.
- I keep my mouth shut every time I drive by Rombach Farms in the Chesterfield area and see the “Busses welcome” sign (it’s “buses” – get it right!).
- I have stood by quietly as error after obvious error on the KSDK-TV news crawl tarnishes the most beautiful newscast in the St. Louis area.
- And I have never said a word about the missing apostrophe on the logo on the Scotts LawnService vans (it should be “Scott’s,” since the company is named after founder O.M. Scott; also, would it hurt to make “LawnService” into two words?).
Those are just a few examples. I can live with errors like that, as long as I don’t have to view them frequently. However, there’s a big error on the way for Missouri residents. The new Missouri license places feature a major grammatical error. The hyphen is missing in the state’s nickname, “Show-Me State.” You can read more about it by clicking here and here. You can also view the license plate for yourself by clicking here.
Here’s a passage pulled from one of the stories linked above that shows just how much our state cares about this pending embarrassment that will surely tarnish our state’s reputation:
David Griffith, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Revenue, said they won’t correct the mistake because that’s how it looked when voters chose it in an online contest last year.
“If the people want it that way, that’s what we’re going to deliver for the people,” Griffith told The Associated Press.
Excuse me? The people want it that way? This is ridiculous. How embarrassing for a state that many on the coasts considers “flyover territory.” Now we’re so backwoods that we cannot punctuate our own state motto correctly. This really should be considered a travesty and an injustice.
When I receive my new license plates, I’m going to take a marker and fix the mistake. I hope you do the same thing. Make a stand.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Howdy!
This is Andrew, the dumb Okie who brought this to the attention of the media and state govt. in Missouri. I love Missouri - my family is all in the St. Louis area - and I hate that I had to point this error out. The sheer arrogance of Mr. Griffith at DOR is appalling. I’ve covered this at my Oklahoma news site, RedDirtReport.com. Check it out.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Andrew: I love your take on the situation (for the curious, here’s a direct link: http://www.reddirtreport.com/news.php?id=4911). Calling it “hyphengate” is pretty hilarious. At least there’s some humor to be found in the lack of judgement (and knowledge of basic English) shown by Missouri’s wonderful Department of Revenue.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I thought I was the only one out there who got so irritated at grammatical errors that steam seemed to want to burst out of my ears! (Especially apostrophes. Please. It’s an easy rule. Learn it. Live it.)
When I get my plate, I will happily bring out my Sharpie and make the proper correction. Hey! Maybe I’ll just keep a Sharpie in my car and make corrections throughout the St. Louis County and consider it a public service. (Or is it a misdemeanor?)
April 29th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
After reading a staff report with hyphenation errors last week, I made hyphenation a topic of discussion at my weekly staff meeting. I know my staff thought I’d lost it. But it turned out to be quite timely! No hyphen-challenged staff here in Scotts Valley, Califorinia.