Saturday, September 15, 2007

"Go Eagles"?


My friend Rachel found this on a certificate of achievement that her sister got when she graduated high school. It might actually be ok since probably cheers fall into the slogan grey area. But the thing has a gold seal, and that's fun.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Bethany,
I'm a business journalist in Boston, so whenever I spot mistakes in grammar and punctuation usage, I have to point them out.
In this case, you used the word "grey" (is my usage of quotes acceptable in this instance?) rather than "gray." The latter is the correct spelling; for some reason, however, grey fell into common usage.
What do you think?
Chris Nelson

bethany said...

actually, Chris, I'm fairly certain that both spellings are correct, although microsoft office only allows "gray". I think we can all agree that bill gates should not decide our spelling conventions.
I don't have time for the OED today, but here's a wikipedia link to back up my position. Turns out anglophiles like grey.

Unknown said...

Hi Bethany
We're both right! The Wikipedia entry works fine, although I've found that Wikipedia -- while truly fascinating -- is hit or miss with regards to its accuracy. I pulled mine from the AP style book and one of J-school classes in college. I remember our professor lecturing us on the benefits of the AP style book, and she used grey as an example. I've got a few entries to send to you --I totally agree with you on the use of quotes.