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Previous: Monopoly box art | Main | Next: Thai bathroom sign
March 6, 2007 12:03 AM
Broken: Two recent shopping sights
Two sights from a recent shopping excursion:
I thought of buying Super Automatic Machine but decided not to. Maybe if it had been called Super Happy Automatic Machine I would have bought it. (This was the entire label for the product in the store's window display.)
Doesn't anyone copy edit product packaging any more?
'Super Automatic Machine'? Next is 'Hyper Storage Device'.
Also, do those kids look crammed in that baby chair?
So, uh, what's broken about the coffeemaker, exactly?
It's a super automatic. That's what that kind of espresso machine is called. (http://www.wholelattelove.com/articles.cfm?articleID=4)
One assumes (though you don't say) that given the sort of store it is and any other context, people are probably aware it's an espresso machine.
(I think this is an especially reasonably assumption for people willing to spend around $1500 on a DeLonghi Magnifica...)
Is it really the "it's" that's being said is broken in the second picture here? Because it's not. While the "'s" is overwhelmingly misused, it's correct here. It shows possession, referring to the class.
Attaching an apostrophe followed by an "s" to "it" signifies a contraction of the two words "it is." When indicating possession using the word "it," one attaches only an "s," without the apostrophe.
example:
I like baseball. It's fun.
I like baseball, particularly its emphasis on strategy.
" Is it really the "it's" that's being said is broken in the second picture here? Because it's not. "
It's one thing to be mistaken and not know it; it's a another to be so insistent and yet so utterly wrong.
Back to grade school for you Ambrocked!
Ditto Sigvald's comment: Espresso machines are typically classed as manual, semi-automatic, automatic, and super automatic. Manual machines are the old lever type - there's no pump, just arm/spring power. Semi-autos have pumps that push water through the grounds, but you turn the pump on/off yourself via a panel switch. Automatic machines pump a pre-determined volume of water through the grounds (usually) at the press of a button. Super-autos have a hopper for beans, and they grind, measure/dispense into the brew basket (portafilter), brew the beverage, and eject the spent puck into a waste bin.
About the It's: It's wrong. I am a junior in high school, and have had this rammed through my head many times in the past few years. The contraction for "it is" always has an apostrophe. The ones showing possession (metalmaster2's) have an apostrophe unless the word is a pronoun (his hers ours thiers its).
Wow, I SWEAR that's what I was taught back in the day. Thank you everyone for the schooling, I stand humbly corrected.
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Previous: Monopoly box art | Main | Next: Thai bathroom sign
Sadly, it probably was copy edited. It seems fewer and fewer people know the difference between it's and its. And I especially love it when I see its'.
Posted by: Steve J at March 6, 2007 01:05 PM