When you or I make a grammar mistake in a note or email, we can rightfully claim, “It’s not like it’s carved in stone or anything!”
But when Illinois sculptor Lou Cella committed his big grammar blunder, he couldn’t make that statement. Five years ago, Cella unveiled a 7-foot granite statue of legendary Chicago Cubs first baseman Ernie Banks. It stood just outside Wrigley Field, and on its base, Cella etched Banks’ favorite phrase: “Let’s play two.”
The only problem: Cella left out the apostrophe in the first word.
The error was fixed a month later with a grinding tool in Cella’s steady hand. Today, the apostrophe itself is a tourist attraction.
Cella gets kudos for admitting his grammar mistake and fixing it. That’s more than we can say about other American artists who are committing grammatical blunders at an alarming rate in a medium that may well be as indelible as stone: Twitter.
The good folks at Grammarly.com recently examined the grammar of the most popular 150 celebrities on Twitter. Not surprisingly, the Tweets were laced with errors.
The least grammatical group among the Tweeters were — surprise! — musicians, who made an average of 14.5 grammar mistakes every 100 words. Rapper Snoop Dogg personally brought up the rear, logging a whopping 31 errors for every 100 words. Actors did better than musicians; writers did better still — but even writers averaged seven mistakes per 100 words.
Which individual Tweeters were most grammatical? President Obama (or his social-media handlers) came in first, averaging less than one mistake per 100 words. Other grammar-friendly Tweeters included Stephen Colbert, Kim Kardashian, and the Dalai Lama.
While Tweets seem ephemeral, every one of them is stored somewhere in a vast “cloud.” So our blunders will always be searchable. But at least they’re not in stone.
Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar Gourmet, is executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (www.carnegiecenterlex.org). Contact Chethik at neil@carnegiecenterlex.org or (859) 254-4175.