I've edited other people's copy for many years, and PC's example doesn't even begin to plumb the depths of dreadful writing. Try being a lifestyle editor and getting handwritten reports about club meetings or getting employee news from all over the state. A cherished example: "Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but he never saw our roses here at Plant B." What I don't get is people who can talk and read well, but their writing looks like they had a simultaneous attack of Tourette's and aphasia, mixed with a dash of loss of punctuation.

A sign I've seen in many printers' offices says, "If you're looking for sympathy, it's in the dictionary between shit and suicide."

"Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but he never saw our roses here at Plant B."

That's...just, oh my.

"If you're looking for sympathy, it's in the dictionary between shit and suicide."

If that's where you're looking, you'll be looking a long, long time.

"Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but he never saw our roses here at Plant B."

That's...just, oh my.

I'm not seeing what's so awful about that, myself. There are subjects and verbs and a comma in the right place and everything.

Well, it seems to be suggesting that Shakespeare never would have said that if he'd seen the roses at Plant B, which would seem to suggest that those are some foul stank roses; and I'd bet folding money that Boy, do our roses smell foul! was not what the writer meant to say.

Oh. I thought maybe that's what he was trying to say. For whatever reason.

Well, it's possible that's exactly what he meant; it just doesn't sound like something you'd want to brag about in a newsletter. I guess we'll have to wait for Ginger to return and enlighten us.

What he was trying to say was that they'd planted roses in front of the plant, but he became all entangled in a playwright who could not possibly have seen those roses, or smelled them, or called them something else. It's the subset of bad writing in which the person doesn't know what to say, so he uses a quote that frequently has nothing to do with his subject.

eta: My fellow editors and I called that Bartlett's disease.

Oh, Bartlett's Disease, love it.

I particularly enjoy it when people choose one of the trite idiocies that Polonius says to Laertes but use it as "Ooo, Shakespeare wrote this! It's Profound!"

My fellow editors and I called that Bartlett's disease.

I bow before you in humble awe.

You know you watch too much TV when you read "Bartlett's disease" and think "No, wait. He had MS, and Abbey risked her license..." IJS. And because this is the Forum for Lusting: check out my latest: [link] Keep your knees loose, y'all.