Multiple Infractions

I like reading Penny Arcade. It generally has interesting discussions and fun comics. While reading one of their new posts, I couldn't help but notice a few glaring errors. While they probably have a large enough loyal reader base that doesn't care about things like grammar, I would hope they still take a few minutes to proofread the posts.

First infraction: failing to capitalize the first word of a sentence.
You think we’ve caved into to pressure from a vocal minority and you’re not entirely wrong. let me at least break down why we did it though.


Second infraction: failing to separate items in a list.
If jokes about violence,rape,aids,pedophilia,bestiality,drugs,cancer,homosexuality, and religion bother you then I recommend reading a different webcomic.

In addition to being a basic grammar mistake, this also affects the page appearance, as the browser views this list as a single word, creating unnecessary blank space at the end of a line, where at least a few of these items could fit. (See the following screenshot for reference.)


Third infraction: using sentence fragments.
We want PAX to be a place were everyone feels welcome and we’ve worked really hard to make that happen. From not allowing booth babes to making sure we have panels that represent all our attendees.

The fragment here is a complete thought, continuing that of the previous sentence and should be a subclause rather than a fragment: "... make that happen, from not allowing..."

Any simple word processor with a spell/grammar checker should catch these errors.

Source:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/1/28/dickwolves

Back to the Grind

Every once in a while, I get a bit of an itch to check my traffic, and I've noticed that even though I haven't posted here in a while (I know I promised to in my last post), I'm still getting a fair number of visits. Obviously, I've done something right to keep getting noticed like that, so I'm going to keep trying to update here.

I've been doing some translations recently and it's gotten me to think about idioms - words or phrases that have a completely different literal meaning than what they're commonly used for. I started making a list, mostly from books/blogs I've been reading or podcasts I've been listening to. So, in no particular order, here are a few that've caught my attention:

"in my wheelhouse" - This may be a regional thing, but I'd never heard this one before, and I've really only heard it from one particular podcaster. The idea here is that something "in my wheelhouse" is something that I really enjoy, that fits my interests. This brings me to:

"up my alley" - Similar in meaning (if not identical) to the previous phrase, but I essentially grew up hearing this. Again, might be due to regional differences.

"sawbones" - This is a colloquial term used for a doctor, more specifically a surgeon.

Then there are various drug references, such as "doobie," "roach," and "weed."

As I came across these, I couldn't help wonder how I would translate these into German. I could go for the functional version, translating the meaning rather than the phrase (i.e. "surgeon" for "sawbones), but it feels a lot more formal.

I'll try and keep posting these as they come up. If you have any suggestions for the translations, or want to provide more idioms for discussion, please feel free to comment.