Repetitious Redundancy

If you’re at Pearlridge Center in Aiea during the next few days and park in the "Downtown" covered garage, check out Verizon Wireless store on the left, just past Fernandez Fun Factory when you enter from the garage.

That’s what I did the other day and that’s where I saw this sign:

I almost fell down laughing. “Free Phones Free”? Hey, I said to the wife, aren’t free phones supposed to be free? Or is there a time when free phones will cost you some money?

Now, you know me … I just HAD to take a picture. So I did. And the guys working at the store looked upon me with bemusement, until one of them (a nice young man) asked me why I was taking the picture. I explained why I was laughing.

The young man looked at me kind of funny-like, obviously offended by my remarks. And who can blame him? I was making fun of the company that paid him his salary.

“Not everybody is as intelligent as you,” he remarked. I love a challenge.

“It has nothing to do with intelligence,” I replied. “It’s just plain proper use of English.”

He responded with a subtle harrumph and watched me (I presume) as I walked away laughing. Free phones free … indeed!

(Oh, I know what the message the sign was meant to convey. The most powerful word in advertising is "Free." And, after all, according to the young man, I AM intelligent.)

So again, if you see the sign there (or anywhere else in the world, for that matter), point it out to the workers. But do it more nicely than I did. Maybe they’ll take ‘em down everywhere when they see how redundant the sign is.