Language Follies

We dedicate this blog post to some examples of strangeness, goofiness, and just plain language craziness.

*           

Dear Lipton Tea:

Thank you for giving me a reason not to buy your product. Since water is as good as your tea for hydrating, I can just drink the water and save money by not buying the tea.

*

Wegmans sets a new standard for a product:

Imagine: Cheese made from cheese!

*

From Newspapers:

*

Rock Bottom Translation: 

When Joseph Papp decided in 1976 to produce a revival of The Threepenny Opera, he ditched the Marc Blitzstein translation that was used in the very successful 1950s Theatre de Lys production, which ran for almost seven years.

In the new translation we get

instead of

There was a time

And now it’s all gone by

When we two lived together

She and I.

It should be elementary that the first priority of a translator is to render the original text into the idiomatic speech of the second language. So how could an abomination like “I and she” be any way acceptable? Brendan Gill, in his New Yorker review, says that the translation was made by “scholars.” 

Scholars who obviously don't speak English!

*

The Classic:

I once saw a sign in a barbershop window which read:

We specialize in all kinds of haircuts.