Its a Sign! Hong Kong Edition–Strange Instructions Or: How I Stop Caring And Just Laugh At Them

More wondrous signs and warnings from Hong Kong. Thanks, Edmark! Use the link here to his post, the final warning is the best!

Its a Sign! Pacific NW Edition

I’ve spent the last several days in NW Oregon and SW Washington. I love this part of the world, and its very different from my usual residence in Colorado. Found a few signs and bumper stickers to share. Some strange, some funny, and others simply very different from life in Colorado. With this first sign, […]

Its a Sign!

Of what, I don’t know. Strange signs, advertisements that are goofy, things that may not be communicating what they intend to be. So for curiosities sake and entertainment, I present the following: In a recent grocery ad in my local paper: Wild and Farm Raised cannot both apply to the same piece of salmon. While […]

Word Funnies, Part 3: Mondegreens

Mondegreens are rampant, we’ve all said them, and many are hilarious. So what are they and why do they have such a strange name? A mondegreen is a word or phrase that results from the mishearing of something said or sung (Merriam Webster). Sylvia Wright coined the phrase in a 1954 article, writing about how […]

Word Funnies, Part 2: Malaphors

Whats a malaphor? A blended idiom, combining two phrases. A combination of Malaprop and metaphor. I’ve enjoyed these gems for years, having a fondness for the absurd. Only recently did I learn the “official” term, when a Facebook friend of mine linked to one of Dave Malaphor’s posts, and from there I found his site: malaphors.com I’ve […]

Word Funnies, Part 1: Malaprops

I’ve long enjoyed malapropisms and the little twist of surprise that comes with hearing one. So what are they? From the Oxford dictionary: malapropism (noun) the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect, as in, for example, “dance a flamingo” (instead of flamenco) synonyms: wrong word, solecism, […]