Musings of the Museless » News

The Looney’s Clean

lori.hogan — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:21:28 +0000

*sigh* I’m a little disappointed that Canada ISN’T the smart little sister, but still the dumb young kid brother…

Official report of Canada ’spy’ coins not true: U.S.

I Always Thought that Polar Bear Looked Suspicious, and Don’t Get Me Started on the Loon…

lori.hogan — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:02:34 +0000

I gotta say, I’m a little proud (and a tad weirded out) when I read this story:

Pocketful of Espionage: Beware the Spy Coin
Bet the US never thought we had it in us, hey?� Kind of like when you find out your little sister’s been reading your diary and replacing that hair you put across page 42 to detect intruders…

Now, I must go to Tim Horton’s and spend whatever change I have… can’t be too careful.

When You Can’t Fight Grammar, Fight Language

Lori — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:18:03 +0000

Ah-HA! I previously wrote on the contract dispute between Rogers and Aliant, and how a misplaced (or maybe intentionally placed by Aliant but overlooked by Rogers) comma means that Aliant has the right to terminate the lease Rogers has on thousands of telephone poles in New Brunswick.
Well now Rogers is hitting back – en francais. In this Globe and Mail story, they argue that the French version of the contract does not have the same punctuation and conveys the meaning they (Rogers) thought the contract said in the first place. The contract was originally created and then translated, but each contract was individually signed by both parties.

My thought – if the contracts say different things when they are supposed to be the same, wouldn’t BOTH now be declared void? My other thought – how the heck do lawyers sleep at night? :)

In da News, By’s

Lori — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:02:00 +0000

Well, seems everywhere you turn Newfoundland is making National News for something or another. My basis of this post started over on Fark, where they picked up the Fight Club that got busted up in Corner Brook. Teens are getting more and more dumb, aren’t they? But even dumber are the people who choose to comment on Fark. Even if you don’t know where a place is, there is nothing preventing a person with at least four fingers and an internet connection (which the commenters obviously have) from finding out NF is not part of Europe, and we don’t say aboot. :)

There was also the recent Nissan ad for the Bonavista edition of the Nissan X-Trail that’s got some Newfoundlanders up in arms. (A search of YouTube can find the ad for you if you haven’t seen it). To be perfectly honest, I don’t see anything wrong with the television ad.. in fact, I find it somewhat hilarious. A major bone of contention seems to be the fact that the actor is from Cape Breton and not a Newfoundlander, which is silly (really, they’re just Newfoundlanders we kicked off the West Coast, right? :). It doesn’t seem to be putting down – the seller knows what he’s talking about in terms of the car’s features and fine points. He’s the one in charge of the situation. It may not be exactly how people from Bonavista talk, but that’s not the point. The point is that we have an accent that should be celebrated… and used to sell SUVs:). But a local car dealer, City Honda (who, IMO, do great radio ads), has retaliated.

In general, Newfoundlanders get too touchy over these things sometimes. I have my “Newfoundland boiling points”… don’t ever make the mistake of placing Newfoundland in the Maritime in front of ME. But why can’t we be proud

Comma Power

Lori — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 00:55:00 +0000

I’ve admitted in the past to being a sort of grammar fanatic (you may not get that from my posts though). I was thrilled by this Globe and Mail article today, ‘A basic rule of punctation’. For those of you who can’t get the story or aren’t interested in reading it, it can be summed up in the next few sentences. Rogers enteredinto a contract with Aliant to use their utility poles. Due to the placing of a comma, the contract is not early as lucrative as Rogers’ perceived it to be and will be out oodles of money.

I love it! Not one big business cheating another by use of grammar (which is how sme see the whole thing), but rather I love that a simple comma can hold such an important place. The clause of trouble is…

“The agreement �shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.�”

See, the combo of the two commas means that technically, the middle section (“and therefore… terms”) could be taken out of the sentence and it would not affect the overall meaning of the sentence – it’s just adding extra info. So that means the sentence could read…

“The agreement �shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.�”

And that means Aliant has every right to do what they’re doing. Rogers (or their lawyers) made the mistake of overlooking the second comma!