So the other day, as I was locking up my bike, I noticed this City of Portland parking van parked near my office:
I was greatly annoyed by this, because while I could figure out the intended message, it’s only because this kind of message is prevalent, and I was honestly confused for a second because what it actually says doesn’t make much sense.
For those not as obnoxious as me: without any kind of separation, that warning tells the reader that they should expect that not very many stops should be happening in the future, which is precisely the opposite of what they are intended to say. At the least, there should be a semicolon or two different lines, to indicate they are two separate thoughts – “Many stops; do not follow” would be a perfectly legitimate warning. I later saw one that I permitted, in which the two thoughts were identical to this one, but separated by a large amount of white (or, rather orange) space:
Apparently the actual parking repair vans know their stuff. But that first one is still in need of revision. I was considering getting some vinyl semicolons printed up to rectify the omission myself with a little guerilla copyediting, but then I realized that I still had about half of my 100-pack of HRC stickers, which just happened to be a very similar shade of blue. After rummaging around the office for a razor blade, I know have some guerilla semicolons ready to go for next time:
The size is a little iffy, we’ll see how it goes. I saw one outside this morning, but was not fast enough, and by the time I got down there with a sticker and a razor blade, the parking attendants were back in their van.
Next time…
please let’s just all take a moment to acknowledge how awesome Joel is.
