Unfortunately Named Restaurants

My friend Josh sent me the link to these restaurants today, and I laughed so hard at some of them, I knew I had to post them here.

Check them out!

To start, a local business: a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts!

I will never order from them because of their name.  Who actually wants Pu Pu Hot Pot?  (Besides, whenever I get greasy Chinese food, it’s usually post-clubs at 3:00 AM in Chinatown.)

Cambridge is full of college students — hello, Harvard and MIT! — and I’m sure that so many of them get a kick out of the restaurant’s name that Pu Pu Hot Pot will always stay in business.

Here are a few others:

My dung.

Vagina Tandoori.

No comment.

If this is all you eat, it will happen faster than you think.

Crabby Dick’s.

(My dad is named Dick.  My friends love his name.  He’s not crabby very often, though.)

Here are the rest.  I love them.

Enjoy!

(Also: things have changed SO much over the past few months!  You won’t believe just how much spam I’m getting in my comments!)

But, seriously, I’m grateful to you for all the emails you sent me.  I needed a break, and I’m back.  Just wait until you see the horrible sign around the corner from my office…it is so bad, you guys will LOVE it!

The Perfect Valentine’s Day Card

I received this card from my friend Lisa for Valentine’s Day (along with a tiny Valentine’s Day bottle of Jose Cuervo):

(This isn’t my picture — it came from Facebook’s “Good Grammar is Hot” group — but this was the card.)

I think they have this card for every holiday, including birthdays, but it’s great every time!

You know the economy’s in the tank when…

If you have the money to do so, now is a GREAT time to travel.  Rates are so low due to the economy, and you won’t believe the travel deals you can find.  My friends and I just booked our third trip to Vegas and we’re staying at the five-star Palazzo, the Venetian’s upscale sister resort, for a ridiculously low rate.

In fact, some hotels are actually giving away tons of freebies, from meals to show tickets.

But nobody takes the cake like this Days Inn sent to me by reader Laura:

HBO. CNN. Spouse. It’s ALLLLLLLL free!

To Serve and Correct

I just came across an interesting article in the UK’s Ilkeston Advertiser:

Derbyshire police officers have become the first in Britain to get a new educational booklet, which includes tips on how to spell.

Superintendent Gary Knighton has distributed the Fast Facts for Policing booklet to all 1,800 officers in the county.

It contains multiplication tables and the correct spellings of the days of the week and months of the year.

The differences between source and sauce, whether and weather and two and too are explained. And officers are advised on how to use the 24-hour clock.

Supt Knighton said: “Spellings and terminology are very important in our line of work and accuracy is key when producing official documents. We’re pleased to be the first force to offer people the opportunity to improve their skills in this way and we hope other constabularies will consider distributing the Fast Facts booklet.”

Multiplication tables?  Really?

It sounds a bit ridiculous when you picture cops running down the street, fighting crime while referring to their little books.  (It reminds me of this hilarious Conan O’Brien sketch.  “Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich!  Nooooooooo!”)

Sometimes you have to start with the very basics, the very minimums that help you avoid embarrassment.

Also, keep in mind that if a cop spells a month incorrectly on a speeding ticket, you could probably contest it.

What do you think?

Getting Creative with Thank You Letters

It’s been a few weeks since the holidays, so if you haven’t written your thank you notes yet, now is the time!

Maybe you’d like to get creative with one of these, sent to me from my friend Andy. Britain’s The Magazine and the Society for Editors and Proofreaders had a contest to write a thank you letter that can have two different meanings if you use the same words but change the punctuation.

Here’s my personal favorite (as well as Andy’s):

Dear Aunt Agatha,

Sorry it has taken me so long to write telling you how much I liked your Christmas present this year, only I didn’t have the time. To take it back and get another would be out of the question! I suppose for you to be so kind shouldn’t come as a surprise after what you bought me last year. It was splendid! News about Uncle Brian? Dying to see you again in the New Year. Would be awful to lose touch.

Mark

Dear Aunt Agatha,

Sorry it has taken me so long to write telling you how much I liked your Christmas present this year, only I didn’t. Have the time to take it back and get another? Would be out of the question, I suppose, for you to be so kind. Shouldn’t come as a surprise after what you bought me last year. It was splendid news about Uncle Brian dying. To see you again in the New Year would be awful.

To lose touch,

Mark

Mark Till, Southport, England

I love these! Doesn’t the line about Uncle Brian kill you?

Click here to see the rest. These are five of the best.

The Ten Most Annoying Phrases in the English Language

Compiled by Oxford researchers:

1 – At the end of the day
2 – Fairly unique
3 – I personally
4 – At this moment in time
5 – With all due respect
6 – Absolutely
7 – It’s a nightmare
8 – Shouldn’t of
9 – 24/7
10 – It’s not rocket science

Personally, I’d probably add “ironic” and “ironically” because most of the time they’re used wrong!

The Best of Alabama

I received this recent submission from reader Elizabeth.  She and her husband went to Alabama for a wedding and encountered the following sign in a restaurant:

Wow.  Wow.

The best part?  This message, with this exact wording, was reprinted verbatim on placards on each table.

Thanks, Elizabeth — I live for signs like these!

Enjoy alliteration?

If you enjoy alliteration, you’ll probably be delighted by this Dan Wasserman comic:

Sorry about the lapse.

This election is driving me insane.  Only six more days!

Grammar Hilarity

The following pictures are the latest and greatest of the “Good Grammar Is Hot” group on Facebook:

And the greatest picture of all:

I give much kudos for the members of the group for posting these fabulous pictures.

Also…

Some of you guessed.  Some of you are correct.

My big Thankgiving trip is a solo trip to Buenos Aires!  It’s my first trip entirely alone and my first trip to South America.  I’m so excited! 

I just did something crazy.

I just booked a vacation for myself over Thanksgiving.

It’s my first solo vacation.  I’ve been wanting to go on a solo trip for a LONG time.  (I’ve traveled through Europe on my own, at times, but never for a whole vacation.)  Now I finally have the opportunity, with a window of vacation days to use.

Thanks to a site with great deals on flights, I was able to secure an incredible rate to a fantastic destination.

I haven’t been close to this destination.

I haven’t even been to this CONTINENT before.

And I am SO EXCITED, I can barely stand it.  THIS is what I live for!  I want to live a life defined by travel!

I digress.  I know that this is my grammar blog, and not my personal blog.  (Speaking of which, if you’d like to know more about this trip or any of the other random and/or cruisazy events in my life, feel free to visit Kate’s Adventures.)

At any rate, I know that you guys enjoy signs.

And here is a sign from the location of my first solo trip, my Thanksgiving vacation:

Yikes.

More FAIL!

Okay.  Forget everything I said about the Word Warp application for the iPhone.  I’ve been playing it nonstop, and now something’s wrong with my right arm…it’s sore all the time, and even resting it on the table irritates it.  My hand hurts the most.  I wish I weren’t typing this.

I overdid it.  And I’ve been paying for it for days.

(My boss asked me why I’ve had my computer on my lap all week, despite the fact that I was sitting at my desk.  I told him it was easier for me to view illicit and inappropriate material that way.)

Since the Fail Blog is always popular with everyone, here are some of the best fails of recent memory:

(I think this one is a joke, but I love it.)

(This one is for my bud Josh.  It’s so him.)

Horrible.  But I laughed.

Share Your Favorite Ironic Moment

I love irony.  I find it deliciously amusing — especially when people use the term irony correctly!  (We all know that it’s not that often!)

It’s Friday, so let’s gear up for the weekend by sharing some stories.

In the comments, tell me about an ironic moment in your life that you enjoyed.

Here’s one.  It’s not really mine to tell, since it happened to my friend Alexa (who reads this blog — check out hers!), but I find it to be a perfect example of irony.

After she moved in with her boyfriend a few years ago, his mother gave them a trinket that read “First Christmas Together — 2006″ on it.

The irony?  They didn’t celebrate that Christmas together — they didn’t even celebrate it in the same state!  They each spent the holiday with their own family members (which is unusual for them!).

What’s your favorite real-life ironic moment?

I have a question for you.

What is the worst part of this sign?

They just make it too easy.

I’ll let this picture from People.com speak for itself:

I love it.

Unintentionally Hilarious Headline of the Day

I just pried myself away from CNN, CNN.com, Huffington Post, Politico, MSNBC, Newsweek, Stumper, Boston.com, NYTimes.com, WSJ.com, LATimes.com and the Ticker (with Barack Obama selecting Joe Biden as his running mate, it’s been one of those days) long enough to actually blog something.

What a great day!

Reader Ian just sent me the most amazing picture documenting this event:

Obama Taps Biden.

Oh, yeah.

I bet he tapped that.

The complete Olympics post will be posted tomorrow — strangely, pictures are showing up on my home and work computers, but apparently nowhere else.