Today is National Grammar Day (March Fourth, the only date that’s an imperative) and Mardi Gras and National Pancake Day (the last according to IHOP, which has what you might call a vested interest). Stack up the grammardicakes and let the bon temps rouler!
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Dennis Baron, aka Dr. Grammar, has created a new Grammar Day quiz for 2014. It comes with a caveat:
Even if you celebrated National Grammar day last year or in 2010, you must celebrate it again today. Most important, or most importantly, if you live in a state that is adopting the Common Core, you are required to take the National Grammar Day Quiz today. If you took the National Grammar Quiz in 2011, you must retake it, because those scores are no longer valid.
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John McIntyre’s thrilling four-part Grammar Noir saga, “Grammar Never Takes a Holiday,” concludes today. A snippet:
“Well, they may have the doors and windows covered, but that doesn’t make you safe.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been infiltrated.”
She uttered a word that I don’t think used to be in the dictionary.
“By whom?”
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Mark Allen of the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) directed the fourth annual National Grammar Day Tweeted Haiku Contest. Who will win? Our breath is bated; we definitely could care much, much less than we do. See all the entries here. UPDATE: Well, whaddya you know. My doge haiku won!
Some of them are mine:
Wow. Very poem.
Amaze syllabifying.
Because #grammarday
Heinz: “Where there’s happy.”
@Harrys: “Less expensiver.”
Branding weirds language.
To whom it concerns:
You’re using “whomever” wrong.
The bell tolls for thee.
Yes, “ain’t” is a word.
Look it up in Webster’s Third.
Your peeve is absurd.
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National Grammar Day has a theme song, “March Forth.” Here are the lyrics. Now sing along!
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More Grammar Day silliness at the NGD website. And from my own archives, here are some posts about grammar and brands:
“Bad” Grammar in Ads: License to Annoy? Visual Thesaurus, November 2011. Not paywalled!
They Cannot Lie. Best Buy’s lay/lie confusion, September 2013)
Let’s Grammar! Last year’s Grammar Day post on Hooters #StepIntoAwesome campaign, which twists an adjective into a noun. Plus: more grammar haiku!
Shrift Much? Mardi Gras is Shrove Tuesday, so here’s a post about the antique verb to shrive.
Aren't all dates in March imperatives?
Posted by: Q. Pheevr | March 04, 2014 at 08:10 AM