I love when I see "quotations being used improperly"

This has to be one of my all time biggest pet peeves: People who don't know how and when to use quotations. (My other huge pet peeve is people who don't know the difference between borrowing something and lending something.)

Let's have a little grammar lesson, shall we?

Quotations are used when quoting somebody. Who would have thought it? Perhaps you've read a book or a magazine article, or even a newspaper and noticed that sometimes these symbols here " " were around a group of words, also known as a sentence. Maybe they were only around part of a sentence, or maybe around an entire paragraph.

Sometimes you may even see quotations in a dialogue type setting like this:

She said, "I plan on using quotations properly in an article I'm writing."
He said, "Well, if you don't I will shoot you in the face."

Another very popular way to use quotations is when you are being sarcastic, trying to convey a hidden message or inside joke.

For example, maybe you and your best friend have decided that every time one of you says, Let's for for "milkshakes," milkshakes is code for beer. Therefore, the word milkshakes is in quotations because you don't actually mean milkshakes, you mean beer.

But, if you say to your friend, Let's go for "beer" and actually mean that you want to go for beer, there is absolutely no reason to use quotations whatsoever!

This also applies to the infamous "finger quotes" or "air quotes"

The real word for it is actually Ersatz quotes.

I was at my grandma's seniors apartment complex for my Great Aunt's 90th birthday party. EVERYWHERE in the recreation hall attached to the apartments were little signs typed up by little old people with quotations around every other fucking word! Things like this:

Please "wash" your dishes
This is "our" room. Keep it "Clean."
"Return games when you are done with them"

WHY? WHY? WHY?

It was ALL so completely unnecessary and creepy. At first it was like, what do they mean by, "wash" your dishes... what are are they trying to imply?

They had many full out sentences in quotations too. It was terrible. Of course these signs were everywhere and in large print. I'm not sure what year these signs were created, but perhaps they should be aware that there are other ways to get somebody's attention on paper.

The best way, in my opinion, is to use the bold effect.
Not everyone is a fan of using itallics. But it has its purposes.
I have never been a fan underlining my words. Thank gawd blogger.com doesn't allow you to.

There's the good ol' larger text size option.

But if none of these are options that you can use, you can always go for the FULL CAPS.

It's not hard.

If those signs were printed on the very first typewriter ever known to man they still could have sued the full caps instead of quotations. I honestly have half a mind to redo all of their signage for them myself.

Then, yesterday, I was driving by the Food Fare Mart on Corydon Ave and saw printed largely on their sign it read, "Please Use Lilac Entrance" in fucking quotations!!!

WHY? WHY? WHY?

I am ashamed of our country's lack of knowledge regarding quotations.

"Nazi Mom"

If you don't know who the Nazi Mom is, do a google search NOW because you are obviously living under a rock. She sent her daughter to school with "hate propaganda" drawn on her arms and legs in permanent marker.

I'm privy to information that I cannot share with you or else I'd lose my job, but I have to say that Nazi Mom should not be allowed to raise her children anymore. Nor should the children's father. (Not that he wants to.)

It's one thing to be proud of your heritage, (which she states that she's proud to be a Scottish chick,) but that's not what she's teaching her kids. I've now watched 2 interviews with her and she is not articulate at all. She has a hard time conveying her thoughts and often stumbles attempting to explain herself and her views.

Of course, she is nervous. You can tell. She's upset, she's scared, she's lost her children. All those things play a factor in your demeanor. Some people speak better in front of a camera than others do. But in the case of the Nazi Mom, she's quite vague in her responses to reporters and often appears flustered when answering questions.

At times she feels guilty and regrets letting her daughter go to school with those messages on her body. She said she did it to send a message to the school. Her child wasn't getting enough homework and there were posters in the hallways depicting minorities having pride and there were no posters depicting white pride. This upset Nazi Mom because her whole spiel is about how she is proud to be white and she wants the right to say White Power just the same as black people are allowed to say Black Power.

She claims to not be a bigot or a racist. She claims she has no problem with any other race. What she wants is for her country to start helping its citizens instead of other country's citizens. She's tired of immigrants coming into our country and using up all of our funding and resources. She thinks the government should be spending that money on the people that already live here: helping the poor, the homeless, the sick, the needy.

News Flash: Canada is made up entirely of immigrants. (Minus the aboriginals that were already here.)

Just because the people coming over aren't white doesn't mean they cannot contribute to our society. It's just the new wave of people trying to make a name for themselves in Canada.

Nazi Mom also has a problem with the gangs in the city of Winnipeg. Apparently they are made up mostly of immigrants and aboriginals. I've read several posts that were by AryanPrincess1488 which is supposedly "Nazi Mom" regarding the topics of immigrants, gangs, and other miniorities in winnipeg. In an interview with her, she said that she said those things because on the forum where she posts everyone else is saying those things too.

I can't even begin to describe how stupid that makes her look.

How can we possibly know that Nazi Mom is telling the truth? How do we know that this isn't some big trick she's playing on us. I've seen this woman cry. She's been run out of town. She can't get a job or a rent an apartment. She has let it be known to the public that she is willing to jump through every hoop and say and do whatever it takes to get her kids back.

How do we know that her tears are genuine? When she says she's not racist or a bigot, how do we know she's just not saying that to make herself look better? She posts on a white pride forum as aryanprincess1488. She has pictures and videos, some of them on the internet, where you can see that she is at a white pride rally or convention. She let her daughter go to school with what today's society calls "hate propaganda." She has a white pride flag and an assortment of other paraphernalia. I think she actually has a few tatoos. She has many ties to other members of white pride groups.

And she claims she's not a racist.

Once she gets her kids back, then what? She said if she ever does she's taking them far away from Winnipeg. Everyone here is against her.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of who you are. There is nothing wrong with being proud of where you came from. But to raise children with the idea that we are not all created equal is setting up our society for failure.

I don't know if that's actually how she's raising her kids. Really, it's the mother's word against her daughter's. All the same, it's scary to think that maybe, just maybe, this mom's extremist views are shaping the way her children think and that one day they will have kids of their own and the cycle will continue.

Ignoring Children

Today on the bus a little girl, still too young for kindergarten, was with her mom and her mom's friends. The little girl asked, "Mommy, why do you have to go to the dentist?"

I think that is a legitimate question for a four year old to ask. Plus she was so cute and very polite!

The mom ignored her.

The little girl asked again. The mom ignored her again.

The mom's friend answered the little girl.

How rude. I absolutely hate when parents ignore their children when they're kids are trying to talk to them. It's so rude!!! It doesn't matter how old the child is, you wouldn't do that to an adult.

I completely understand ignoring your child if s/he is throwing a tantrum or acting silly. But when your kid is exhibiting good behavior and wants to talk to you about something, you should NEVER ignore him! What kind of message does that send?

And then for the mom's friend to respond because the real mom was too busy being a bitch and text messaging someone. That seriously made me want to slap the mom. Respond to your fucking kid damn it!

And this has nothing to do with anything really, but the mom was a ginger head and carrying A Nightmare Before Christmas purse.