Some Writing Snark ;)
We went on a marriage retreat a week ago, and on the way I discovered some fun typos and oxymorons that I thought I’d share here, since I’m supposed to be making this a writing blog.
1. Is it Tibetan?
Seen on a sign in Starbucks in North Bend, WA:
FREE COFFEE
*Ask me how*
This reason this is funny is probably kind of obscure. I should have asked what the sign meant, but I didn’t want to sound like a grammar nazi if it happened to come out why I asked.
Anyway, the word “FREE” is most likely being used as an adjective. However, the use of “how” in the next phrase implies that it is not an adjective, but a verb, as if one should be asking how to free the coffee. Did someone, in their grammatical cleverness, actually mean to write it this way? I’ll never know. But the image of liberating a bunch of beans and setting them loose into the wilderness does make me giggle. 
2. Picky Punctuation
Seen on a sign in the mountains:
END TRAFFIC INFO.
ZONE
This wasn’t funny as much as it was confusing at first glance. There are certain words whose abbreviations over the years have just been turned into their own words, such as “info” for “information”. The use of a period after “INFO” is redundant, and almost causes the word “ZONE” in this sign to float off by itself. It seemed very odd to me.
3. Oxymoronic!
In the tourist center of North Bend, there is little more than a few fast food restaurants, gas stations, a strip mall, and outlet stores. The strip mall is called “Mountain Valley Center”. It made me giggle. I realize that to have mountains implies the occasional valley, but it still seems oxymoronic. Kind of like “Alpine, California”, where there are evergreens, but no Alpines to be found.
. . .
Okay, so it’s probably not as hilariously funny as it was at the time I saw it, but I thought I’d write about it, anyway.
So, uh . . .