Thieves shoot truck driver with Taser

This week one of our publications is running a story about a truck driver who was attacked by thieves. They shot him with a Taser, bundled him into a car, dumped him nearby and stole his truck.

In its original form, the story concluded: "The driver was shocked but otherwise unhurt." This was perfectly accurate, but I had to change the wording to avoid the unintentional pun. Otherwise our readers might have thought we had no sensitivity or tact at all...

Photo special: this week special large beer

I spotted this sign outside a cafe in Funchal, Madeira last year. Down by the harbour, as I recall.



(If you can't see the photo, the sign reads: "THIS WEEK SPECIAL LARGE BEER".)

It makes me wonder. Is the large beer special because it is being offered at a special low price, or because it is something that the cafe doesn't normally offer? Or perhaps there's another explanation entirely - suggestions welcome.

Compendium of Curious Words

Here in The Engine Room, Apus and I have written about all manner of unusual and intriguing words, from 'applipac' to 'zero'.

I've just put together a Compendium of Curious Words, which lists them all - and links them back to the original blog posts. It's a knol, but don't be scared.

Headline: Overturned lorry driver arrested

Thanks to my colleague Ro for pointing out this BBC News headline:



This suggests that it is the driver that overturned, not the lorry (although the driver probably did overturn with his vehicle).

GraphJam, it's vs its, Ralph Wiggum

I'm quite a fan of the GraphJam website, so was pleased when R Mason sent me the link to the following chart a while back:



R Mason wrote:

Just found this and posted it to my cubicle wall.

I love that it's is spelled correctly for the green piece and not in the red piece. I'm going to assume that the spelling of 'inpossible' was intentional.

Reminds me of my favourite Simpsons quote (by the character Ralph Wiggum): "Me fail English? That's unpossible!"

Queue here for tickets for future travel

Gingerous has emailed us with the following:

At London Euston station this weekend I noticed a sign at the ticket booths that read "Queue here for tickets for future travel". Which made me ask the question: why would you buy tickets for past travel? Surely all travel is in the future, even if only five minutes in the future.

Well, er, yes – but can you think of better wording? I assume that 'future travel' means travel on any day apart from the current one, only I don't know how to express that concisely and unambiguously on a sign...

BBC News and attack on Sri Lankan cricketers

The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team is a big story, but big enough to occupy two of the three tabs in both the BBC News 'news' widget and the BBC News 'sport' widget – at the same time?

Press release: stop next generation dying

One of my colleagues recently passed me a press release from road safety charity Brake with the following headline:

Local education project to stop next generation dying

Quite an ambitious – and worrying – aim!

Agricultural Travel Bureau advert

I love trade/B2B magazines, I really do - and not just because I work on a couple. Where else would you find adverts like this? (Click on the image to see a larger version; I know it's a bit small.)


My favourite bit: "Visit the 'Lost City of the Incas' and the ancient Sacred Valley, as well as some interesting farms."

Talk about bathos...


(I believe I scanned this advert from Farmers Weekly.)