Our submitter in Peoria, Illinois says one of the sales reps at his office is known for posting crazy notes like this all over the office. “He might have some anger management issues,” our submitter adds.
related: If there were ever a time to hold your red pen…
50 responses so far ↓
#1
Mr Me
Despite his rant, he still was able to get one wrong. “*It’s ‘I am calling you.’” NOT, Its.
Jun 30, 2013 at 9:36 pm rating: 90
#2
Guy Paul
I had a boss that would write BAD!!! BAD!!!BAD!!! in red ink, underlined several times on any piece of paper that had something written on it he didn’t agree with.
Once, after finishing up with a labor-intensive filing job that I had been working on for several days, he couldn’t find something and so he took out the index cards on the file drawers and wrote BAD!!! on them.
When I got to work and saw what he had done, I walked into his office and took the red pen off his desk. I said he could have it back after he thought about what he’d done to my filing and promised to use his pen responsibly.
This boss sounds like he’s cut from similar cloth.
Jun 30, 2013 at 9:52 pm rating: 90
#3
H for Toy
If a person says “boys’s” why would you think they wouldn’t also say “girls’s” or “kids’s”?
Jun 30, 2013 at 10:11 pm rating: 90
#4
Pestle
I have a supervisor who uses an “apostrophe s” in all the plural words in her markups. “ADJUST WINDOW HEIGHT’S. THESE LOOK WRONG FIX LINE’S. NOTE’S ARE WRONG FONT.”
It’s been five years and I haven’t snapped yet, so somebody ELSE please be the grammar Nazi for this PAN and explain the difference between plural and plural possessive, and the conventional spelling of the latter when the noun ends in “s.”
Jun 30, 2013 at 10:28 pm rating: 90
#5
pseudony mousie
The very first google result for “girls’s” (with the quotes) is, as I had hoped, the hilarious “Girls’s Costume Warehouse” video. I know it’s almost entirely irrelevant to this note but I couldn’t pass up a chance to mention it. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4rUiV_Hh74 )
Jun 30, 2013 at 11:04 pm rating: 90
#6
Straightline
Hey mister, the boys’s was calling you.
Jun 30, 2013 at 11:08 pm rating: 90
#7
Daniel
The first comment thread gets taken by the joy-killing grammar assholes? Really?
Jun 30, 2013 at 11:40 pm rating: 90
#8
tch tch
I hate sports commentators that use “an” before a players name – as if their mother had a multiple birth of identical octuplets. Reminds of a “Goodies” skit involving captive Rolf Harris’s…
Jul 1, 2013 at 3:38 am rating: 90
#9
H for Toy
Boys’: say it over and over or it gets the hose again.
Jul 1, 2013 at 8:43 am rating: 90
#10
horatio
Actually, there is nothing wrong with “I was calling you” either. If you are talking to the person on the phone, then you are no longer calling them. You have already called them. The act of calling refers to the act of dialing, or calling out a name, etc. If you are talking to the person on the phone or leaving a message on voice mail, then the act of calling is in the past; so the past tense would be appropriate.
Jul 1, 2013 at 9:43 am rating: 90
#11
Lamb
LOL people in IL talk funny. I moved to Chicago a few years ago and cringe when people say “You’s Guy’s” it’s like normal talk here.
Jul 1, 2013 at 10:18 am rating: 90
#12
Geek Goddess
I’m almost afraid to ask, but why does the tab for this page say “Very loose butthole | PassiveAggressiveNotes.com”?
Jul 1, 2013 at 10:40 am rating: 90
#13
Helen without the H
We have some pretty big boneded girls on my job…in fact, they’re pretty and pretty big boneded.
Jul 1, 2013 at 12:01 pm rating: 90
#14
kaetra
It didn’t play in Peoria, therefore it won’t play anywhere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F
Jul 1, 2013 at 12:41 pm rating: 90
#15
mutzali
Everybody else in my office uses apostrophes for plurals of abbreviations:
These P.O.’s are out of order.
Please issue two RMA’S.
NCMR’s should be filed in…
Even the boss, who graduated from Stanford with a degree in English, does it.
Jul 1, 2013 at 1:14 pm rating: 90
#16
Kat
In the first note, it should be “it’s” not its.
In the second note, it should be boys’ if there are….if it’s possessive, and involves more than 1 boy, as in “the boys’ locker room” ; or boy’s, if there is just one boy, i,e. “that’s my boy’s train”
Jul 1, 2013 at 1:15 pm rating: 90
#17
bookbug
I thought by far the funniest part was the second note where the writer demands that we never use a word ending in s. Which, if taken to its full conclusion, means the writer shouldn’t get to use is or as in the earlier part of his note.
Jul 1, 2013 at 4:57 pm rating: 90
#18
Theo Bromine
How far *can* you get without saying “is”? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_prime
Jul 2, 2013 at 8:27 am rating: 90
#19
Lythande
I have to admit, I’m so onboard with this notewriter it isn’t even funny. If you’re working around people whose job is to call people and they say “I was calling you today…” when they mean “I am calling you today…”, eventually you’d snap.
You know, if you cared about such things.
Jul 2, 2013 at 4:07 pm rating: 90
#20
OurHero
Let’s be honest. The Apostrophe is one of the most confusing points of written english. So many rules, so little interest…
Jul 4, 2013 at 9:32 am rating: 90
#21
TOSS
An American telling someone how to speak English? Aw, dat’s cute.
Jul 6, 2013 at 8:23 am rating: 90
#22
Picky Picky
Technically… there *can* be such a word as “boys’s.” “Boys” can be used as an adjective: The boys department at Target, for example.
Sometimes the adjective can be used as a noun… “Where does this can of oil belong?” “It’s automotive’s.” Even though it’s technically “the automotive department’s.”
Similarly: “Where do these shorts go?” “They’re boys’s.”
Jul 18, 2013 at 10:09 am rating: 90
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