Ah, the holidays!

Thanksgiving is soon upon us, and with it, the most beautiful day of the (shopping) year: Black Friday. Over the last few weeks, information has trickled out about retailers' various offerings. This comes from the listing of Best Buy's ad, just released on Black-Friday.net:

	Left 4 Dead 2 (PS3)	$34.99 *
	Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)	$34.99 *

This caught my eye, as I was unaware there was a PS3 version of Left 4 Dead 2. The original released only on Xbox 360 and PC. Developer Valve has a history of not making games for PS3. So color me curious about this listing.

Going to the official website confirmed my suspicion: L4D2 is not releasing on PS3. Additionally, looking at the actual ad scan shows this:


While the image is low quality due to the original scan, it clearly says, "Only available on XBOX 360." Somebody just forgot to do their homework.

Also of note in the listing:

	Call of Juarex (PS3)	$19.99
	Call of Juarez (Xbox 360)	$19.99

and

I Know Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (DVD)

$3.99

D'OH!

Source: http://www.black-friday.net/bf/bestbuy-black-friday.html

Here's one from the guys at Rooster Teeth. Just goes to show, typos can happen anywhere, even in cartoons.



"You mean, business tems."


Source: http://roosterteeth.com/comics/strip.php?id=852

I enjoy reading Penny Arcade. Gabe and Tycho simply have a way with words. They can take mundane things and make them seem magical. Nevertheless, they are not immune to the problems of written communication.

Don't the worry about the energies! The energies are fine.

Source: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/9/4/reality-problem/

This piece from Back of the Cereal Box, while comical, does bring home the concept of how profound a change simple punctuation can make. From the post:

My question was quickly answered by her response, “Who you are? Why you come here?”

Interestingly, the article itself contains punctuation errors:
Upon speaking with various members of the proofing department at length about the question mark erroneously affixed to the end of the film’s title on various posters, press packets, TV commercials, certain versions of the trailer, and all incarnations of the various Where the Wild Things Are video games. I eventually arrived at Ms. Anoldi’s office — which exists in a room that I previously thought was only used to store old furniture — and asked her if she was, in fact, the person who inserted this punctuation mark.

Did you see it? That fragment right there? Instead of a period, Drew obviously intended to continue the thought of the sentence, necessitating a comma.

Also of note, a spelling error:
She eventually chased me away by repeatedly rapping me on the head with a wooden spoon that she had been using to stir a pot of what appeared to be marina sauce.

Has anyone out there ever heard of this alleged "marina" sauce?

Source: http://kidicarus222.blogspot.com/2009/09/but-truly-where-are-these-wild-things.html

Being Hollywood, there just has to be some added element of complication to the sometimes inscrutable world of relationships, and boy, do those screenwriter love disorders.

Now, I know there are all sorts of disorders out there, but what are"screenwriter love disorders?"

Source: http://oudaily.com/news/2009/aug/28/movie-reviews/

Originally, I thought this was an error:

I was wearing the new Nike+ Sportband, which has proved itself to be a great tool when running with friends because I can track my mileage without lugging my Nano around.

I have always learned the principal parts of 'prove' to be: prove, proved, proven. This would mean that the above sentence would need to say 'has proven.' However, a quick search on dictionary.com shows both forms as correct.

Life is all about learning.

Source: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/08/26/my-nike-sportband-fe.html

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prove

How many mistakes can you make in one article?

Going back in the grab bag, this one comes from CAD (Ctrl+Alt+Del), from about 2 months ago. Reading back through the article (a discussion of rumors about the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion), there are quite a few things to mention.

First, the serial comma. There are a couple of times when Tim makes lists that aren't completely comma-separated. Example: Zones, quests and instances revamped. Standard grammar rules would require a comma before the 'and.' Additionally, Tim has the following list-within-a-list, also not fully comma-separated:

Orgrimmar split in half, Thousand Needles flooded, death damage and destruction everywhere you turn.

I may be wrong here, but I think semicolons are needed here in addition to commas. That is, the list-within-a-list would be comma-separated, while the outer list would be separated by semicolons ("Orgrimmar split in half; Thousand Needles flooded; death, damage, and destruction everywhere you turn.")

This assumes, though that death and damage are actually 2 separate list items and not an adjective describing the kind of damage (in which case, only a terminal comma would be needed, not the semicolons). Given the different kinds of damage in fantasy/role-playing games, this may actually be the case, though I don't believe so.

Further reading shows more errors. Here's an unpaired/unclosed quotation mark:
(not some "alternate reality zone, caverns of time horseshit)

Finally, what grammar gripe would be complete without the old standby of its/it's confusion:
Especially if it wants to stand it's ground against The Old Republic and all the hawtness that game is offering.

One might ask about the numerous sentence fragments, of which the examples above are but a few. However, Tim takes a conversational tone in his posting, not intending to be formal, so I'll leave them be.

Source: http://cad-comic.com/news.php?i=1918#1918