I received the following email from a reader:
I was excited to hear you on NPR the other day. I immediately thought of Tulsa’s latest marketing “slogan.” I have included below the Tulsa World’s article so that you can see what is bothering me. Every second-grader knows that the “I” should be capitalized. Will this add to the Okie image that most Americans have? I’m not really sure, actually, since there is a continued acceptance of the creative alterations being made to the English language.
I agree with you, and find myself constantly perplexed and amazed at the direction we are going with this.
Thank you for making your continued efforts for preservation.
Teresa
She attached the following picture:
Now, when you’re talking about graphic design, even the strictest grammarian must allow a bit of creative license. When somebody uses all lowercase letters now and again, if it works with the design, I don’t mind it.
However, it’s becoming an epidemic. People are using all lowercase letters all the time, when it truly isn’t necessary at all.
Take a look at the above ad. Is it really necessary to change the I?
I don’t think so.
And Home to the 2007 PGA Championship? More like home of. Nothing is home to.
Come on, Tulsa. And while you’re at it, come up with a better slogan than i am.
You know that I’m from Boston and that I went to college in Connecticut. Although I love to travel, I’ve never been to the midwestern United States. I’ve been to Texas, but that was Brownsville last March, not Midland or any other classic stereotypically Texan region.
So, do I have an “Okie image” in my head? Do any of you?
All I know, Teresa, is that whenever I think of Tulsa, I think of one thing:
HANSON!!!!
Thanks, Teresa.
Kate, I have to laugh that, when you think of Tulsa, you think of the Hansons. The other day, a friend and I were trying to think of what other Americans think of when they think of Tulsa. We thought of oil barons, art decor architecture, Oral Roberts University, and the somewhat local eloquent televangelists, but, actually, forgot about the Hansons. What is funny is that one of the brothers actually lives in the lofts located in the downtown building where I work. I don’t know why I thought that was humorous, but it gave me a chuckle nonetheless. Thanks for posting my Tulsa-concern. I only wish the powers-that-be could see the post and see the “errors of their ways” and make the appropriate change. I appreciate your validation of my thoughts concerning the same and, perhaps, someday, someone will see a better way to promote Tulsa and its assets. I appreciate your cause and wish to help in anyway possible to promote a more correct execution of the English language. –Teresa in Tulsa
No way!! Which brother? I loved Taylor back in the day, but now I think Isaac seems like the cool one.
There’s also the story arc on Friends when Chandler got transferred to Tulsa (“the Paris of Oklahoma!”).
Ur fuckin awesomie!!!1111
Judging from the rounded rectangle that’s featured prominently in the backdrop on that ad, I’d say the Tulsa tourism board (or whatever they call themselves) was thinking more of Apple’s iAdvertising than anything else when they put together that particular crime against English grammar.
So which is worse? A bunch of Okies who don’t know how to write in the language they were born to, or a bunch of Okies who intentionally butcher the language they were born to in order to cash in on an aging advetising trend?
I, for one, abhor the spelling choice for the iPod and the army of iClones that it’s since created in the advertising world. Of course we could always package a cyanide pill in a pill called “iDie” and let the problem take care of itself.
Perhaps the font for an upper case I looked too much like a lower case l.
Or maybe the lower case i represents a golf tee and ball.