joey in pittsburgh spotted this one on the campus of carnegie-mellon university. now that’s the thanksgiving spirit!
meanwhile, a different version of this photo floating around shows what appears to be a copy-edited version. ain’t punctuation grand?
EMAIL THIS POST TO A PAL!
166 responses so far ↓
#1 Troy McClure
The comma version is great: “Damn! I knew it was somebody’s fault I’m so damned soulless!”
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:07 pm rating: +3
#2 WanderingPenguin
Wow. I so would have been the person who corrected that note.
Team Lynne Truss FTW!
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:07 pm rating: +1
#3 WanderingPenguin
What if people were using it as, say, an ashtray? Or a bird bath? Or an umbrella stand? Would I have someone else’s soul, then? Would I have some sole? Would I finally be able to understand wtf James Brown is saying? What???
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:09 pm rating: +1
#4 WanderingPenguin
Back to the correction thing, though: I still don’t think the semi-colon is what I would have done there. I would have put an exclamation point after each of the words “can” and “soul”. The semi-colon is still sort of ambiguous, like it’s thanking the asshats who are using the container as a trash can and “oh, by the way, if you are reading this - and this is totally off-the-cuff - you have no soul!“
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:12 pm rating: +1
#5 Jason Adams
Haha nice, I didn’t see it before it was corrected.
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:32 pm rating: 0
#6 Canthz_B
For people who what? Have souls or use this container for trash? If the latter, I suspect a rude reception at #3613 Whatever it says!
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:35 pm rating: 0
#7 Andy
I love this one. The quibble I have is that someone had to photoshop a semicolon; dicks leave trash in a food drive barrel.
If you read that statement just right (with the comma), they are saying that we have lost our souls because of a few douchebags. Way to ruin it for the whole human race!
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:48 pm rating: 0
#8 Troy McClure
We wanted beans and Raisin Bran
But strangers’ old chip packets an’
Mostly drunk colas
Are making you soulless
When dropped in the donation can
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:49 pm rating: 0
#9 Jason Adams
No one photoshopped a semi-colon. That is the actual picture. I took it with my cell phone at about 5pm the day it appeared (November 8).
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:51 pm rating: +1
#10 Troy McClure
CB, I looked it up: #3613 WeH, which is an abbreviation for Wean Hall, a building at CMU. (If “Rene” is short for “Irene”, then this rhymes with “Rene Hall!” But I hope it isn’t.)
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:53 pm rating: 0
#11 Jason Adams
Rhymes with green, actually.
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:53 pm rating: 0
#12 Canthz_B
We have here a noble creation.
We’re trying to feed,
the less fortunate of the nation.
We will not ask for your cash,
But, or God’s sake,
We don’t want your trash!
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:56 pm rating: 0
#13 Mishee
I think anyone who doesn’t add at least one can to those things have NO SOUL! God, just donate that can of creamed corn that has been in your cupboard for 3 years! YOU AREN’T GONNA EAT IT APPARENTLY”
Nov 18, 2007 at 6:57 pm rating: --1
#14 Canthz_B
*preview button*
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:00 pm rating: --1
#15 brinkofacomplex
I would marry the grammar corrector.
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:01 pm rating: 0
#16 pry
i had already planned a comma splice comment. then i saw the second photo. *sigh*
hilarious.
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:11 pm rating: 0
#17 Gez
Team Truss; that semi-colon was fucking delicious!
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:16 pm rating: +1
#18 Canthz_B
Th sign looks manually altered…note the second and third bricks down on the upper right-hand side. The sign has moved.
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:21 pm rating: 0
#19 HS
I’m glad to see that someone was paying attention in English 101.
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:22 pm rating: 0
#20 Troy McClure
Jason, thanks. That’s what I was assuming. I was just thinking it would be funny if Rene used an alternate pronunication of her name to match. As in:
Anthony Grosso and Rene Hall
Both went to study in Wean Hall
Rene flicked her ash
But not into the trash
Tony died, slumped o’er his mean scrawl
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:32 pm rating: 0
#21 Andy
OK, fair enough. That semi-colon is just so much sharper and darker than the rest. I can’t call ‘em all, apparently.
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:33 pm rating: 0
#22 Writer, Rejected
Well, for goodness sake, what else can we expect from one of our finer institutions of higher learning, which is named after two robber-baron families from the greediest era in the the history of American capitalism? 1) A semicolon added to the embarrassment of a comma splice, and 2) trash to feed the poor. Would that it were a possibility; what a well-fed impoverished class we’d then have! Amen.
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:38 pm rating: 0
#23 Writer, Rejected
(Only one “the” needed; I have a stutter tonight.)
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:39 pm rating: 0
#24 Canthz_B
OK…sorry…I cannot help it…That soul stealing is fucking delicious!
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:43 pm rating: 0
#25 Troy McClure
Wear it, CB. Wear the unitard.
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:46 pm rating: +1
#26 Canthz_B
I’ve worn it before. I am now re-tarded!
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:51 pm rating: 0
#27 ShagNBag
I have no soul myself (but I do have a little funk). Does that mean I can use the food drive container as a trash can?
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:52 pm rating: +1
#28 GVI
Team Food Drive!!
Nov 18, 2007 at 7:54 pm rating: 0
#29 Sam L. Jackson
Don’t put your Jack-in-the-Box wrappers in that container, fool! That’s food for the mother-fuckin’ homeless! Nobody needs your mother-fuckin’ trash in their donated food. Don’t you think they feel mother-fuckin’ bad enough just comin’ down here to get this leftover shit?
Nov 18, 2007 at 8:00 pm rating: 0
#30 Troy McClure
GVI, Team Food Drive sounds like something from one of those jokes: “You know you’re a redneck when you & the boys take your pickups out for a Team Food Drive & come back all stocked up on roadkill.”
Nov 18, 2007 at 8:02 pm rating: 0
#31 Canthz_B
*rim shot*
Nov 18, 2007 at 8:11 pm rating: --1
#32 Canthz_B
This is a very PA note though. A better direction could have been taken. Such as, “This is not a trash can”. The choice to become a “Reaper of souls” leaves me bewildered.
Nov 18, 2007 at 8:20 pm rating: 0
#33 courts
My friend’s name is spelled, R-E-N-E, pronounced like the name “Renee”.
And I don’t know why, but I also thought of Anthony Grosso’s Rene when I saw this note. Thank you Terry
Nov 18, 2007 at 8:39 pm rating: 0
#34 WanderingPenguin
Hate to be “that guy” (everyone: “again“), but we’re only two threads in to this new era and I am already pretty weary of SLJ’s one-trick pony comments. And yes, I am quite aware that my note will in all likelihood spur him on to dizzying heights…but there it is.
Now back to my “Godfather_Of_Soul - English Dictionary”. But in the immortal words of Tower of Power:
“It doesn’t matter what I’ve been through,
I’ll still be diggin’ on James Brown.”
Nov 18, 2007 at 8:45 pm rating: 0
#35 Wade
Let’s assume that:
a. I have a food donation, and
b. I have a soul
According to the sign, I am supposed to take the donation to 3613 WeH.
So, my question is, why is the food donation barrel still out?
Nov 18, 2007 at 8:48 pm rating: 0
#36 Troy McClure
Thanks to the people who are using this PA Notes thread as a place to put off-topic complaints, you have no soul.
Nov 18, 2007 at 8:55 pm rating: 0
#37 Sam L. Jackson
I say feed the homeless!
Wandering Penguin, just what have you been through that can compare to what a Black man has been through? Dig on James Brown all you want to and you will never know the Mother-fucked Black Experience!
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:03 pm rating: --2
#38 Canthz_B
We’re talking about food distribution.
Not dealing with race resolution.
Keep your crap to yourselves.
overburden your shelves,
please stop topic dilution!
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:10 pm rating: --1
#39 Troy McClure
What has he been through? He’s a fucking penguin! How about six months of howling winds and darkness at minus a hundred and fifty degrees? Does that give him any credibilty??
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:20 pm rating: 0
#40 Sam L. Jackson
FTR, I was on topic, and in character, The Penguin injected James Brown into the mix.
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:27 pm rating: --1
#41 GVI
Are they implying that one’s soul is in his trash?
ps. SLJ #41. A penguin is part black.
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:31 pm rating: +1
#42 Writer, Rejected
Penguins are BOTH black and white after all.
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:34 pm rating: 0
#43 Wade
Not to mention that he has wandered into the wrong damned hemisphere.
wait. speaking of wandering, are we starting to drift?
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:35 pm rating: +1
#44 Canthz_B
And we love ours!!!
Get a grip. Stay in character if you must, but not everything is an insult.
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:35 pm rating: 0
#45 Canthz_B
Is that a hazmat barrel?
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:36 pm rating: 0
#46 Canthz_B
“Free food!…No, don’t worry about that green slime!”
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:38 pm rating: 0
#47 Wade
I have never understood why people use garbage cans to collect food donations. Doesn’t that send a subliminal message that your should use this as an opportunity to clean out the pantry, rather than give stuff people actually need?
It may explain why the food bank is full of cans of cranberry sauce and heart of palm.
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:40 pm rating: +1
#48 Canthz_B
Don’t knock it, I disposed of some canned asparagus that way! LOL
But I gave damn it!
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:44 pm rating: --1
#49 WanderingPenguin
FTR, “The Penguin injected James Brown into the mix” in post #3. “The Penguin” was still very much both on topic and in character. “The Penguin” also very much appreciates the recognition of both his duality, his suffering at the hands of Mother Nature and the hemispherically-challenged inner workings of his soul.
And post #35 is messing up my tiny penguin brain. Damn you once again, Wade!
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:53 pm rating: +1
#50 WanderingPenguin
But is that actually a garbage bin? It actually has a little of that “giant rentable juice keg” feel to it from this angle, IMO.
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:55 pm rating: 0
#51 Andy
Or, it’s a chemical waste storage drum.
You say toe-may-toe, I say, dike off.
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:01 pm rating: 0
#52 WanderingPenguin
I think a chemical waste storage drum would be very appropriate if Mishee is going to insist on dropping off many-year-old-cans of creamed corn!
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:06 pm rating: +1
#53 GVI
I bet that year old creamed corn would be …….
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:13 pm rating: +1
#54 morpho aurora
people who dump trash into food drive barrels are assholes - they know what they are doing. putting up a sign like this guarantees these morons are going to add half-eaten junk food and dirty diapers.
it does look like a chemical waste drum, though
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:14 pm rating: +1
#55 Mishee
HEY! I don’t have JUST creamed corn ya know! I have chunk light tuna in oil - like I am gonna eat that!! I also have some other stuff that I am just too much of a snob to eat - or Hubby bought it and it’s just gross!!
*stay on topic*
*stay on topic*
*stay on topic*
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:14 pm rating: 0
#56 WanderingPenguin
All right, sorry Mishee. I could have said “heart of palm”, instead. But that’s just too wrong even for me.
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:16 pm rating: +1
#57 Mishee
Oh God you just made me think maybe I should clean out my dad’s pantry! (I almost forgot the “R” in that last word - that could’ve been embarrassing!) He has some 6 year old Heart of Palm and other such delights in his cupboard.
Maybe that kind of food is the “Trash” that 3613 WeH is talking about?
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:20 pm rating: 0
#58 Andy
Thank you, M-A.
Hmm… I wonder if Hearts of Palm, Tuna and Creamed Corn casserole would be fucking delicious.
Whoopee! I know the last side dish I’m making for Thanksgiving!
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:29 pm rating: 0
#59 GVI
Call it PAN’s delight.
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:32 pm rating: 0
#60 WanderingPenguin
*rim shot squared*
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:33 pm rating: 0
#61 Mishee
Or even PAN Surprise.
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:41 pm rating: 0
#62 WanderingPenguin
Joey, baby, your picture slayed me!
I am disgusted, they’re maladjusted.
A broken pen, an apple core,
Some mouldy bread from days before,
All in the blue bin that was
S’posed to help the poor.
And as you travelled past the can
You took your camera phone in hand
And sent the picture of the sign to us at “PAN” -
Oh, Joey, may I say “You are Da Man”!
Joey, honey - here’s something funny,
The note’s been corrected, don’t be dejected!
And if you start to feel distraught
Your effort didn’t go for naught -
The point’s the same if there’s a
Comma there or not:
Trash is not what that bin is for
But still that sign will be ignored
And if the desitute know
What was there before,
Oh, Joey, they’re not hungry anymore.
Nov 18, 2007 at 11:06 pm rating: 0
#63 Wade
nice, WP
Nov 18, 2007 at 11:33 pm rating: 0
#64 Mishee
*stay on topic*
*stay on topic*
*stay on topic*
WP - you definitely don’t have to wear the unitard after that comment!
Joey, I thought my brother was the only Non-Fictional man above the age of 14 that still goes by “Joey”…
Nov 18, 2007 at 11:36 pm rating: 0
#65