Friday, July 25, 2014

Right on Cue

I usually don’t read the full-page ads that I find in my morning paper. You know, the colorful ones touting gold purchasing, or furniture, or coins. I just remove the sheet and don’t even look on the back because I know there’ll be another full-page ad there.

So it rather surprised me the other day when I turned the front page and my eyes went right to the word “que” (circled in the picture). I have magic eyes. If there’s a typo, grammatical error, or wrong word on a page, they’ll zoom right in on it.

There is no such a word as que. There IS a ’que (preceded by an apostrophe) that’s defined on Dictionary.com as “barbecue” (chiefly in California). If that’s what they meant, then is the reader being encouraged to laugh while sitting on a barbecue?

Or did the ad writers mean queue, as in standing in line? If so, is the reader advised to laugh at jokes while standing in line?

Family Hearing Aid Center (“33 Years of Service, 6 Locations to Serve”) spent a lot of money to purchase the ad space in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. You’d think Randy, the company’s leader, would have at least taken a look at the final proof before the ad ran, and if so, you would think he’d catch the error.
Maybe he doesn’t need one of his Lyric 3 hearing aids; maybe he needs a pair of eyeglasses?

Poor guy. I’m so embarrassed for him.

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