Pet Peeves, Un-jolly Ranchers, etc.

Pet Peeve:
People who say something is “a fraction” of something else.

For example, “The cost of putting an addition on a house is a fraction of the price of a new house.” When people say fraction, they almost always mean “less than”, yet fractions can express mathematical values greater than one. 122/6 is a fraction. If I said “My company’s revenues are a fraction of my salary”, I would be correct.

Pet Peeve:
Sportscasters who don’t use past-tense speech to describe events that have already happened.

For example, a receiver runs down the field, trips on his own shoelaces, and can’t quite catch the pass. After the play is over, the sports announcer often speaks of the play as if it’s still going on: “Bill, he’s wide open. If he catches that ball, it’s a touchdown.” It should be “If he had caught that ball, it would have been a touchdown.” Even if they’re grammatically right, because they’re using the “present pluperfect tense” or “instant replay time travel tense” or some other English language broom-closet rule, it doesn’t matter. They still shouldn’t talk like that.

Pet Peeve:
Pets dressed like people.

Okay, that’s not one of my pet peeves. That’s the pet peeve of Monica from the TV show “Friends”.


Bonus Gripe!
Bags of Jolly Ranchers should have fewer watermelon candies and more grape.

Fun link!
Click the link below and then click "Enter". When you get to the next set of screens, click "Portfolio" at the top and use the words on the left to see the different creations.

http://www.stephanehalleux.com/