I've lived in this city for almost exactly eleven months. And yet it wasn't until yesterday that I noticed that the checkout lanes at my local supermarket have illuminated signs that read "15 items or fewer."
Maybe this is the first time that I've actually used an express lane, or maybe I've just become so accustomed to signs that read "15 items or less" that I stopped expecting anything else.
But when I finally noticed that my local purveyer of selzer and salsa must have had, at some point in time, an employee who understood the difference between less and fewer, it was as if choirs of angels had burst into song.
Renews one's faith in humanity, is what I'm saying.
8 comments:
How funny that our minds were thinking along the same lines tonight with our linguistic pet peeves! Totally with you on the "less"/"fewer" thing.
On "quote" as a verb rather than a noun (responding to your comment over on my blog), I'll confess that this was something I didn't learn until grad school and so it is now something that I always have to hesitate over; I do an automatic mental "proofread" before I use the word. "Loan"/"lend" doesn't give me any qualms, but I too keep a watchful eye on "which" and "that."
How lovely to have a friend with equally twisted knickers! :-)
That rocks. Good for them for having a clue!
-Rebecca :)
That particular linguistic issue is something that would make my own personal angel choir sing, too.
There is truly hope for the future of humankind!
Grapple this literate city to thy soul with hoops of steel!
Ooh, me too me too! I would've gotten very excited and done a happy dance. Alas, such moments of grammatical transcendence have yet to happen to me in this sleepy Southern town where I'm told certain contractions are grammatically correct . . .
Queen of the Nerds! :-P Nowadays I'm just happy when people pretend to understand what I'm saying because I don't speak "Soundbite"
I thought of you yesterday because I was in a Whole Foods in another town with a "10 Items or Fewer" checkout sign. So there's another city out there you could live in! Er, in which you could live. :)
Meanwhile, our own damn copiers in our own damn department says something about "20 copies or less" and the secretaries won't change it!
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