A Comedy of Errors
--The following is an ad from a real-life newspaper which
appeared four days in a row - the last three hopelessly trying
to correct the first day's mistake.
MONDAY:
For sale: R. D. Jones has one sewing machine for sale.
Phone 948-0707 after 7 P.M.. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who lives
with him cheap.
TUESDAY:
Notice: We regret having erred In R. D. Jones' ad yesterday. It
should have read "One sewing machine for sale cheap.
Phone 948-0707 and ask for Mrs. Kelly, who lives with him after
7 P.M."
WEDNESDAY:
Notice: R. D. Jones has informed us that he has received
several annoying telephone calls because of the error we made in
the classified ad yesterday. The ad stands correct as follows:
"For sale -- R. D. Jones has one sewing machine for sale. Cheap.
Phone 948-0707 after 7 P.M. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who loves
with him."
THURSDAY:
Notice: I, R. D. Jones, have no sewing machine for sale. I
intentionally broke it. Don't call 948-0707 as I have had the
phone disconnected. I have not been carrying on with Mrs. Kelly.
Until yesterday she was my housekeeper, but she has now quit.
Poor Mrs Kelly.. A bit uptight, are we?
ReplyDeleteThey had a Bad Day, 4 days in a row.
ReplyDeleteLB, who wouldn't for having perceived as living and loving cheaply and only after 7pm. LOL!
ReplyDeleteFH2o, yeah, they probably need to kayak away to some remote space - like Bako National Park. hehe...
That's almost as bad as a (real-life) radio broadcast in which the announcer said, "As part of the ongoing fair, sexual competions are to be held at (the local) high school. Oh, I'm sorry, did I say 'sectional competitions'? That should have been 'sexual'."
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's better not to try to correct your mistakes...
Sometimes in trying to save costs, advertisers squeeze in as many key words possible without proper sentence construction, and that leads to confusion!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSewing machine jokes leave me in stitches.
ReplyDelete"Sometimes it's better not to try to correct your mistakes...
ReplyDeleteMM, this is so true. I've experienced that - one correction leading to more corrections making the situation more embarrassing.
Joe, I thought the one who advertises has the last say because he's going to be the one paying for the number of words. No?
Pandabonium, hehe....
Yes Happy, advertisers are the ones who pay for the number of words, that is why they try using minimum words to squeeze into a fixed column space - going beyond the space capacity means having to pay higher rates! In other words, they are trying to save money.
ReplyDeleteJoe, Oops! I misunderstood your earlier comment. I was thinking Advertisers being the paper-people. Thanks for your patience.
ReplyDeletePanda, stop needling us with such thimblistic humor on these threads! It may seam funny to you, but I'm a frayed knot.
ReplyDelete