Monday, May 14, 2007
Randomly Noted Question oof the Week: Miss Under Standing
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Mon, May 14, 2007 at 3:36 PM
Ever see a billboard or website headline or bit of in-store signage and, for an instant, completely misunderstand it? That seems to be happening a lot to me lately, particularly on The Internets.
For instance, last week I saw a headline in Yahoo News that said "New Order Breaking Up" and thought it said "New Orleans Breaking Up." Which, given the misfortunes in the Crescent City of the past few years, seems sadly plausible.
And the other night, my wife was looking at a National Weather Service radar map on the computer. I looked over her shoulder, but instead of "NWS Weather Map" I thought it said "NSFW Weather Map." For an instant, I tried to figure out what kind of weather map could possibly be "Not Safe For Work." Maybe that takes the term "Weather Porn" more literally than I could imagine.
My wife experienced the phenomenon the other day when she picked up a brown paper grocery store shopping bag that featured little handles. The bag displays the helpful words "Please hold both handles," but my spouse momentarily read that as "Please hold both ankles." My response, knowing that the bags in question came from notoriously pricey Whole Foods (aka "Whole Paycheck"), was "Sounds like an appropriate attitude when you get to the check-out line."
Anyhoo, this week's question is, Have you ever memorably misread or misinterpreted a sign, headline or other public display? Please provide comints!
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