Uh sorry, I'm voting for the other guy...

9:31 PM Posted In Edit This 1 Comment »
It finally feels like Summer! Yesss! Except I figured that out while I was sitting in my car in downtown Austin traffic at 4:30 in the afternoon without my air conditioner. In jeans. Small boo. But it was still a beautiful day! Anyway, as I was sitting there, waiting for the light by the big Whole Foods to turn, I saw a kid with a sign. This isn't rare, there's people all over the place with signs, but I thought he looked a little out of place. As I got closer, I realized he was wearing a cycling uniform. Weird...? Then I read his sign:
I AM RIDING MY BIKE 4000 MILES TO ALASKA.

Ok, good for you, sport! Oh, but there's more on your sign. What does that say there at the bottom?
FOR CANCER.

I couldn't not giggle. Then, right there on the corner, there was a girl with another sign:
HELP ME BIKE TO ALASKA FOR CANCER!

I'm sure this is completely WRONG of me, but I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud. I think what they're trying to do is awesome, I would love to have the guts/drive/time to bike four thousand miles, but I grew up with an English teacher: FIX YOUR SIGN. Until then, I can't donate one shiny penny. I am, as a matter of fact, against cancer.

Seriously, though, good luck with that.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

That wasn't me, but it's a group I'm in (Texas 4000: www.texas4000.org). My first sign said "cancer research." But when it came time to make a new one, I dropped the "research" part. We want to use the biggest letters possible so that people are able to read them clearly from a distance, and space is at a premium on those signs. So I had to bury my own OCD about these things and go for brevity. Besides, there're probably some grammarians who would endorse our version, in that informal context: The end goal is effective and efficient communication of ideas, right? And you knew exactly what we were trying to convey, right? Then we all win!

Thanks for the moral support, though. But next time you see us, please don't hesitate to donate just because of word choice. That $0.01 and its shininess could do a lot of good.