Strolling around Edinburgh in the latest gale force winds last Thursday, the streets still seemed packed with shoppers. Some of them being knocked to the ground with the force of the winds. You cannot help noticing that climate change is here.
Passing the large John Lewis store I notice on its window what appears to be its present slogan.
Never knowingly undersold
on quality - on price - on service
I do a double take. Surely the converse of that is, Always Knowingly Oversold on Quality, On Price, On Service; and for the first to be true the second converse one must be as well. Not a slogan I would choose.
The other ubiquitious sign is:
No Smoking Permitted
Which of course means smoking and non smoking are both permitted.
And approaching the elevators, the sign:
In Case of Fire, Do Not Enter Lifts
Which to me appears to mean, do not take the lift in the event that there is a fire whilst you are in it.
There must be a thousand others, of small daily abuses of our sign language. Know any?
Passing the large John Lewis store I notice on its window what appears to be its present slogan.
Never knowingly undersold
on quality - on price - on service
I do a double take. Surely the converse of that is, Always Knowingly Oversold on Quality, On Price, On Service; and for the first to be true the second converse one must be as well. Not a slogan I would choose.
The other ubiquitious sign is:
No Smoking Permitted
Which of course means smoking and non smoking are both permitted.
And approaching the elevators, the sign:
In Case of Fire, Do Not Enter Lifts
Which to me appears to mean, do not take the lift in the event that there is a fire whilst you are in it.
There must be a thousand others, of small daily abuses of our sign language. Know any?
John Lewis tie themselves in knots. They're trying to claim they're the least expensive while selling premium goods to customers who I suspect in general wouldn't want to be seen in the cheap seats.
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