Ummm - I didn't know that they could read (Blog 14 of 30)

For more than 27 years, I have written a weekly newspaper article and, as you might imagine, I have had more than my share of proofreading mishaps.

From straight out spelling mistakes, to grammatical errors, to simply reading what I thought I wrote rather than what I actually wrote, I feel for people who have to write for a public forum.  Inevitably, you will make a mistake.

It is hard to English!

The other side of that coin, though, is that you become very aware of how other things may be misread.

For example, Sara and I went for a drive today and I saw this sign......

The sign says, "Keep out wild boars" and it made me wonder....

Is that an exclusionary statement?......  "You can let anything else in, but keep out wild boars!"

Is it a warning? ...... "You wild boars keep out!"  (That interpretation caused me to wonder as well..... "If they made the sign for the wild boars, does that mean that they think that wild boars can read?  What if wild boars can read, but their first language is Lithuanian?  Isn't it a little rude to think that they all speak English???"

That sign made me think of my favourite sign..... one that you used to see all the time.  I thought that it was quite rude too.

Then, when I was searching the Internet for that example, I found this.......

So maybe I am not alone in my humour!

I bet the wild boars liked that one too!
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And a bonus bit...... I am not sure how well you can see it, but the trees down at the North Portal golf course were covered in ice.  The sun reflecting through them was beautiful.  Here is an example (you may have to enlarge the picture to see it, or just use your imagination)...