July 2012 - Judy Gregory Writer

Agreement in number

I was at the Queensland Museum yesterday, and was struck by the sign outside the cafe:Food and drink is not to be taken into the museumWhen did 'food and drink' become a singular collective To me they're two separate things I want to see 'are' not 'is'Picky, yes, but another demonstration of how agreement in number seems to be becoming less important in our...

Electronic communication gone mad

There are times when I feel that we've entered an era of electronic communication madness - when we communicate electronically, not because it's helpful, but because we canLast week I conducted a research interview in a coffee shop This is something that I do quite often, and I always ask for a receipt for my purchasesAt this coffee shop, I was told that they don't provide paper receipts any more Instead, they could email my receipt to me So, I waited patiently while the staff member fiddled...

Discount vouchers that eat up time & increase frustration

This is a tale about my hunt for information, and how it raised my levels of frustration Last week I decided that a kids' movie would make the perfect school holiday activityI'd seen in the Saturday paper that our local cinema was offering a family holiday discount Great idea! I went back to the paper and discovered that I needed to get the discount voucher online EasyBut on the company's website, I couldn't find the discount voucher anywhere! I hunted around the site - I looked under...