Tuesday 5 April 2011

The wordz what NR punktuated

This from a harrumphing Captain Deltic...

Is it too much to expect the correct use of hyphens and apostrophes by Network Rail press officers in this day and age?

"STATION PLAQUE MARKS FORMER PAUPERS GRAVE"

This is not a pedantic moan (Oh yeah? Ed), but the missing punctuation makes the headline ambiguous

Is it the grave of a former-pauper - in which case, where is the apostrophe? (eg which ex British Rail manager turned privatisation fat cat has died and can he really be buried on a platform at Manchester Vic?).

Or is a former pauper's-grave which has become part of a station.

Or is it, even, a former paupers'-grave and was there a mass burial on the site of the station after some massacre of the lower classes?

Eye thinks we should be told!

UPDATE: This from NR's Internet Rapid Rebuttal Unit...

I have altered the headline on the website now - it should be less ambiguous.

Nothing wrong with being a pedant. A 'pedant' is what someone who is wrong calls someone who is right.

PS Who led the pedants' uprising?
Answer: Which Tyler