RULE number 14 owns you. You cannot deny it. Just TRY. Guinea piglets Penelope, Natalie, Licorice and Padfoot WILL attack if you try!
Wait…"Natalie?"
Whatever you say, John Warner…
Rule #14: You know it
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I can’t tell what I’m looking at. That’s four guinea pigs? Are they dessert?
Almost looks photoshopped, but so cute I don’t care
can’t quite tell whats going on but it’s still cute
Looks like one of them got into Bobby Brady’s hair tonic!!!
Oh what a nice pigture! It’s so sweet you could get cavyties from it!
Cute little fluffies in a row! I want to pick one up with the spoon! (but not eat him)
spend five minutes staring at the screen, trying to figure out what the heck i was looking at. Then, much like those magic eye posters, everything became clear. aaaaawww…tinytinytinytiny piggies!!!
(natalie? baroo?)
ohhhh tiny piggies. So cute. Love the little brown bottom sticking out.
I thought it was a scrunchie!
I love the photoshop paranoia that goes on here!
Whoa. With my badly-calibrated work monitor, that looks like one guinea pig that has been painfully wrapped up in a hair elastic. When I get home, I’ll re-check. For now, the idea of four guinea pigs smaller than a spoon is cute.
Who turned guinea pigs into a Rorschach test?
“Cavyties.” Ha!
(It does look like their ears are scrunchies.)
Gaah! Too cute! Sweet little furballs. I can’t decide if I want the one with the white necklace or the one with the brown bumkin. Someone please tell me these guys can co-exist with cats.
EAR FOLDS!!!
Piglitude!! *skweet*
OMG they are soooo tiny!!
O dear little piggies, please turn around!
…and a spoonful of piggies helps the medicine go down…
OHHHhhh… so those are baby cavy BUTTS??
spoonful o’ piggies!
*squeaky voice indicating severe overwhelmed-by-cute-ness* guinea pig bums! whee wittle wears! cowlicks everywhere! eeeeeeee! i can’t stand it! too much! the photo just keeps unfolding. and they’re so wittle! *dies*
gah! the velvety soft piggie ears! makes me want to rub them on my face. well, the ears i mean. oh never mind. heh.
Awwwwwwwwww! So TINY!
chacha, the one with the wittle brown bum also has a white necklace. The decision has been made for you.
I *heart* the sweet little piggie ear folds. OMG.
would this be a case of rule #9, as well?
Oh yes for rule #9 – definitely a pile of piggies! Cuuuuuuuuuuute piggies!!
Eeeeeeeee for whinnie whigs!
My Zoe is going to have her babies ANY minute….(we have been saying that for DAYS!!!
Lauri, don’t tell us that unless pictures will be forthcoming!!!
Ahem, *excusing myself* I believe I meant “ARE forthcoming” since “forthcoming” implies the future it needn’t be redundified and so on and so one… However, the future “will be” could refer to the birth of the wee-guineas, in which case…
oh, never mind.
All I see is s tribble. I can’t make out a guinea pig.
This is NOT a picture of baby guinea pigs. This is clearly a house slipper…
…a very cute, very tiny house slipper.
“redundified” [snicker]
Piglettes! How darling!
A bunchie of piglets so wee
Inspired a chorus of “Squee”
They sat near a spoon
Looked so tiny we swooned
Port-A-Snorg, please bring all four’ve them to me.
/sorry, at work
//so tired and bored I can only write silly limericks.
///whatevs.
Thank you, jaypo, for bringing us that tidbit from the Department of Redundancy Department.
And I follow your logic (as a sad pedant who twitches at greengrocer signs and demands to know “banana’s WHAT? apple’s WHAT? WHAT?!?”) My grammar pet peeve is “the reason is because…”
But back to the subject at hand:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/guineapig
Hee! I love piggies!
–how about–
ATM machines
SSN #s (or worse, SSN #’s)
Arvay– even worse, “The reason why is because…”
VIN number; 10 items or less, etc.
WORST OF ALL TIME: “I could care less.”
ACK! ACK! ACK!
Asynchronous Transfer Mode machines? What’s wrong with that?
If you want to get really pedantic and snotty, how about “with au jus”
But the little tiny piggies, they make everything better.
Okay…feeling thick as a brick here…
10 items or less?
fewer? is that the error?
Well, we can’t let ourselves get that pigky, can we, otherwise every time anyone worried about a grammatical error, he’d have to issue a cavyat. We would not be very sanguinea under those harsh circumstances.
And click the link I posted! It’s so danged cute! The piggy wants to tell you a colorful story, but without the Flash illustrations, it’d be difficult to tell what the pigment.
As per your (implied) request… here’s the goose again:
http://www.squidgrid.com/images/errors/goose_stop.jpg
And Arvay, no worries… we know the Bing vids.
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/03/prepare_for_you.html
Ceebs– yep, fewer vs. less. Rule of thumb: fewer peas, less milk.
Class dismissed.
GUINEA PIG RECESS!
Yay!
Okay, no more puns.
Until next time.
Theo, you slay me every time
Lauri — Best of luck to Zoe! Hope all goes well with the baby cavies!
Um, for what it’s worth, here’s how I’ve always remembered “less” vs. “fewer” –
If you can count it, it’s fewer. If you can’t count it, it’s less. “Less rain, fewer raindrops.”
Wow, where else can you get squeeable cuteness, lol humor, and grammar lessons, all at once?!?!
Tee hee! Isn’t this a great site?
Okay, less pedantry, fewer pedants! Back to the cuteness!
Oh my garsh, Arvay, you had me cacklin’ with the very first pun…..all the way down to the last pigment!
And the dancing piggies! Soooo cute….maybe if Zoe watches that it will send her into labor!
It’s always nice to know that I am not the only one who is driven crazy by the spelling and grammar used in public places…even on tv news. It sets my teeth on edge. Or maybe I just have bun-teeth.
I luff da goose, Theo.
And, I’ll share pics of bebe whiggies asap!
A+, Miss Zelda.
(You may stay after class and clap the erasers.)
‘WORST OF ALL TIME: “I could care less.”‘
On the other hand, I could care less, but it’s not worth the trouble. So I won’t bother.
And to clarify, Ceebs, you use “fewer” for items you can count individually, such as 8 peas, or 50 states, or 87,653,578,936,451,738,536 stars, and you use “less” for anything which cannot be counted.
Arvay, pigky, cavyat, sanguinea?!? LMAO!
Somehow, Teh Qute does seem to attract us grammar pedants, for whatever reason.
I heartily concur with all above pet peeves. What this world needs is Better Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling. I personally refer to the so-called “greengrocer’s apostrophe” as an “apostrophe crime”.
Wait. Are those…koosh balls?
J. Bo – Oh man, ya know, I used to LOVE clapping the erasers after class, and cleaning off the blackboard! (Blerf, talk about a teacher’s pet. Ah well, I turned out okay, I think.)
i have those spoons!
Take heart– we’re ALL eraser-clappers here, Zelda.
That explains why I like this place so much!
I was a clapper in kindergarten, too. My teacher was Mrs. Shain. This is her picture, being kissed:
http://www.historyforsale.com/html/prodetails.asp?documentid=269869
Get OUT, Arvay! Your kindergarten teacher was the nurse in this photo? NO way! TOO cool!
Yep, got the rule… (actually figgered it out meself, woohoo!) It’s just not one that I ever notice. And I am kind of a spelling/grammar/punct. nazi. But things do “excape” me, haha. Don’t get me started!
PIN number!
BTW where is the other side of the pic, I wanna see their faces, not just the hineys!
J. Bo — dat was Aubrey, not Arvay. I know, I know, they’re practically interchangeable, da pun(k)s.
You know, J.Bo – no one ever believes me! I was so proud to be Clapper for her. I felt quite the Bell of the classroom.
Apologies, Aubrey. W’all J-types get so confused ’round heah (jaypo, J.Bo, jenn, etc.), we barely know us from own damn selfs.
STILL– how cool is your story?!? SOOOO cool…
Don’t forget our eighty million Michelles…
T -
‘da pun(k)s’
Are you trying to puntificate on my behavioral Short comings? Not appreciated at Tall!
ROFL, Aubtry!! Being the Bell of the classroom in your role as clapper. Good one!
Michelle, you’re right, they both have necklaces! Should have said “collar”! But yeah, I want a flip pic too – let’s see their little whiskered faces and crumpled ears. Up close plz. … we’ve got some serious pun issues here, yo.
I worked at a pet store once, and one of the guinea pigs there had babies one time. They were SO cute, and SO tiny!! I didn’t know until then that baby guinea pigs are born furred and with their eyes open.
Tiny baby gimme pigs!! Eat ‘em up with a spoon!! *SQUEEP*
This is a PROSHSTROSITY!
Alright, I gotta put my 2-cents worth here on the fewer/less theme:
FEWER is for NUMBERS of things. AuntieM is right.
LESS is for VOLUMES of things. A-M is R…
…I can’t go on without sounding like a pedantic, picky, grammar-obsessed, parochial-schooled English nut. But I am. Mea culpa. Most of my friends forgive me.
Then there’s the that/which thing which always sticks in my craw.
That’s OK, Jpo – we all have our craw to bear.
Jaypo, may I point out one more teensy-weensy pedantic thing (that just happens to be one of my pet peeves)?
I’ll whisper…
****it’s “all right” and not “alright”****
Move along, folks. There’s nothing to see here!
…but the kids are alright!
“Mmmppffddm, mmpffddmppmmpf. Rtnvvpm, ntM.”
how many are there? theres like no way to tell lol
AuntieMame, I second you, and add that it’s “a lot” and not “alot”.
thinkie, *so* there with you on the aspostrophe “s”. I want to go around Toronto with a big black marker correcting them all.
Theo, can I bother you to give me that link again where I could upload my boxcar cat photos for free? The Sizzearch function is failing me at the moment (or else I’m failing it). Gracias.
I have that same spoon! Did you steal yours from my college dining hall too?
Oooo, Jaypo, which is that rule thing for that and which?
I really want to know!
And, AuntieMame, don’t whisper the pet peeves….
I love to hear them….and Jaypo get your hand out of your mouth!
I’ll list the way too obvious there and they’re and you’re and your…..
Not that I am anywhere NEAR perfect!
Baby piggies are probably the cutest newborns ever…well, born!
They are walking, peeping and peering around moments after birth!
Just like Brak S. said…totally furry and fuzzy!
Good article on that and which:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/which.htm
Theo — s’okay, I found it. Boxcar kitties coming (I hope) tomorrow.
Laurie! Can one of the boxcar kitties be named Bertha?
I’ve just been using letters of the alphabet (and am close to running out), but the calico I call “B” can be Bertha for you, Aubrey. There are many, many calicos, so many females.
Lauri, here’s another that/which link:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/t.html
The author knows when to call a quibbler by their rightful name and I won’t argue. Working as an asst. editor for a long time helped set the cranial cement.
jaypo, shouldn’t that be, “when to call a quibbler by HIS rightful name”?
I remember some years back when Sting came out with “If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free,” and a snarky critic referred to the lyrics as “post-grammatical.”
HA!
Teho, I think there are really only two or three Michelles. We just tend to stand out. Hopefully not for our bonus apostrophes.
::ducks::
Oh. And:
Rumpled ears! ::melt::
Ah, that pronoun. Using it correctly lands you in PC hot water. Personally, I’m all in favour of the inclusive “his”, but I don’t stand on that one too strongly. Maybe need to be more courageous.
J.Bo, you got me there! I’d just say it’s a colloquial use of a pronoun (Sister Esther-in-Heaven forgive me!) “POST-grammatical” though?! My turn to be snarky!
thinkie, I live in a college-town that (< --correct use of "that") is sooo PC-driven it's like being back in Catholic shcool. Hey, I like that spelling! Shcool. Like I've had a few but haven't. Just tired...
heh…I just left a job where, for 5 years, I listened to a woman say stuff like “flustrated”, “it wasn’t wrote down”…and the best of all, which she said on 2 occasions about a foreign caller..”he don’t even talk well English.” (well it’s not his first language…what’s YOUR excuse?) needless to say…I am very happy to be out of there! :-$
why must I be surrounded by frickin idiots?
I am scared now, there is more than one punctuation picker here? I am very scared to use ‘ those things. It takes a long time to spell out everything I might normally use an ‘ for. I might just use them at random times. Perhaps just put one here’ then I won’t have to worry about spell checking a 5 line comment. I feel like I am back in school.
thinkster– I hereby assign you the task of coming up with a gender-neutral pronoun set. Have it on my desk by Monday.
jaypo– Oh, as they say over at TWoP, it’s all about the snark. And “shcool”? I like it!
ceebs– I bet she also said “supposebly,” “between he and I,” and “for all intensive purposes,” huh? Ah, the world is FULL of idiots, and sooner or later each of us must work for one of them…
P.S. cuteness lover– I believe the on-line rule is that the grammar/spelling/punctuation police will pull you over only for truly egregious crimes and/or for humorous purposes.
ceebs, I think “flustrated” is a good word for a WaPo style invitational I read a while back.
It means, both flustered and frustrated.
http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t51286.html
OMG I don’t remember this one!
“7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high”
BWAHAHAHA! That literally made me LOL and launch a few corn kernels across the desk.
A big peeve of mine is when people don’t use -ed to make a verb or noun into an adjective. Examples:
“I ordered a toss salad.”
“My new pet is a peach-face lovebird (This was is real and has stuck in my craw for three years now).”
Or how about the reverse, using a suffix to change a part of speech into a part of speech *that it already is*:
“Equivalency”
“Quanticize”
Urgh! My eyes are twitching already!
There are a few malapropisms that I really like though. Like “pre-Madonna.” And I *love* “self of steam.” :~D
Lets see…
The first little piggie went to market,
the second little piggie went home,
the third little piggie went to chacha,
the last little piggie went “squee, squee, squee!” and ran away to live with me!
Pardon the silliness, but that last pig is too frilly and cute to resist!
An alliance of pendants once met
And upon the unwitting beset
But while getting their digs
Fell in love with some pigs
And agreed to forgive and forget
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned it (or if they did, I didn’t see it in the comments), but PADFOOT?
Sounds like someone’s a Harry Potter fan.
Awwwww, Michelle…..that is just wonderful!
And, Anita! I love it!
This is a first….I got up (226 am here) to get a glass of water and had to get on the computer to go to CO.
Does that make me a cute-ologist? Sp….?
Michelle – brilliant!
DAMN, that’s good, Michelle!
(But is a group of pedants correctly called an “alliance”? Aren’t we more a gaggle? Or maybe a flock? Hmm, perhaps a herd– NO, a school, I think… ACK!)
Perhaps a “shcool” of pedants?
Thar she blows!
“Shcool” it is, and ever will be.
Michelle, you are a true CO genius. Take two kitties out of petty cash (you’ll have to get the key from Theo).
I hadn’t scrolled down all the way and thought to myself “self that’s a cute piggie pile” but nothing more… then I finished scrolling down, saw the spoon and my head exploded.
thank you.
I bet she also said “supposebly”
You got that right! The others…I never heard her say. (I learned to tune her out)
She also said “dest” for desk. She is a wealth of stoopidity.
J.Bo — I’m the treasurer now?? Cool! (Um… but shouldn’t a treasurer actually have, y’know, treasure? Or at least a goodly pile of other folks’ cash?)
Michelle (p-shop doyenne & versewright of mesanetworks.net) –
As compensation for your late limericking, I agree to release the recommended allotment of kitties — on the condition that you publically and unambiguously expound upon the difference between “pendants” and… um, “pedants”… ahem… the latter of which clearly requires no further illustration.
“It boils down to this: if you can tell which thing is being discussed without the which or that clause, use which; if you can’t, use that.”
Thanks for those links, jaypo and thinker!
I love shcool!
Whoa, Theo…”publically and unambigously”…
you are one tough cookie!
Who-hoa Michelle!! Brilliant!
That one should win Komment of the Week.
And J. Bo–I appreciate your confidence in me. However, I must humbly demur, confessing that I believe said task to be beyond me. May I please accept a failing grade in that assignment.
There once was a person, a pedant,
who wore a redonkulous pendant.
“Whenever I share
good grammar, I swear,
I don’t care who did or who didn’t.”
Messrs. Wormtail, Moony, Padfoot and Prongs proudly bring you – the 4 pigmen of the apocalypse!
Seriously, guinea piglets – who could have known how utterly and completely adorable they could be, especially with the little teeny brown bullseye on the butt….
snuckle chort.
@ jaypo.
Lol, Kris! Pigmen of the apocalypse!
Jaypo, nice poetry! And, I agree….I don’t care who does and who doesn’t, but it’s just something I happen to notice.
I showed my husband the pic. He said “That’s not four tiny pigs. That’s one medium skunk!”
No fair!
JAYPO’S HELPING MICHELLE!
(LOL @ “medium skunk”… after a 3-martini lunch at Chino Latino, followed by a little new-hire training at Hair Police?)
Thinker, Michelle, Jaypo, Kris from New England … I bow down before thy mastery of Thy Limerick.
The one with the necklace (from what I can see) looks just like one of mine when she was a piglet.
*must get a digicam*
Teho, thanks for the kitten bonus.
If I had a notion worth selling
my case might be much more compelling
to those who pick nits
and battle with wits
if reproaching with accurate spelling!
haha. Michelle, you are our Limerick Master.
(tho’ I’d add “who” to the second-last line, “and who battle with wits….”).
…and we fergives you fer the spelling, there. I think we all knew what you mean.
YAY!
My end of the deal… marmies, naturally…
http://dailykitten.com/archives/456-Chiku.html
http://dailykitten.com/archives/454-Ambers-Moggie.html
Gotta love Daily Kitten.
Ceebs, if I may… I hear stuff like that all the time. I work for a magazine, and I wish I had a nickel for every time someone has called and said “I want to get a prescription to your magazine…” I’ve also heard the word “flustrated,” and I figured it means someone who’s so frustrated he’s also flustered. Then there’s “fusstrated,” which I guess is someone who’s so frustrated he starts fussing.
LOL Brak @ magazine prescription!!!…on another message board I post on we have made these annoyances into running jokes…like “could you be more pacific?” which has led to us calling that ocean the Specific Ocean…haha. Some people like to make up their own words, which is fine, if they have a meaning for them and do it on purpose, but the idiot I worked with is just ignorant. and annoying. and nasty. which is why I make fun of her. If I liked her at all I would overlook it.
The new Guinea-O’s cereal are all the rage with the kids
My grammer peeves are centered around advertising.
Sybase: “Architected for change.” (C’mon, people! ARCHITECTED? Pleeze.)
Apple: “Think different.” (Someone, just kill me now.)
Kinko’s: “The new way to office.” (Ow! Ow! You’re hurting me!)
In college, the one that always got me was “so fun.” Arrgg! My friends and I decided that since it sounded so much like “sofa,” we would simply use the word “couch” to talk about anything that had been “so [much] fun.” Example: “Dood! Did you go to that kitten snorgling? It was COUCH!”
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