Coiners: Careful With Your Punctuation!

PithArtist

The way it works here at CTP, coining a phrase means you coin that exact phrase, as is. This means that there is no English grammar police officer patrolling the database, on the hunt for errors in spelling or punctuation.  You coined it, you own it.  This is partly because if the job of English cop were handed out around here, I can bet I’d be the one doing it and I wouldn’t have any time to sit around and dream up smart-assery.

In order to underscore the importance of punctuation and of making sure that the phrase you coin will look right on a coffee mug or t-shirt, I have included today a perfect illustration of the matter.

Above we find a college photograph of the soon-to-be-former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.  She has apparently taken some time from her grueling studies in hair and makeup at the University of Idaho in the 80s and is showing us an amusing t-shirt that reads:

I may be broke but, I’m not flat busted.

“Busted”, see?  Why, I do believe she’s talking about her breasts! Oh my! What began as a commentary on her student poverty has instead become a wry invitation to notice her generous ta-tas!

After we emerge from the fit of delighted laughter at the funny, funny breasts, we notice that upon all the hilarity lies an unfortunate gaffe.  There is a sadly misplaced comma on Sarah’s t-shirt. It should instead read:

I may be broke, but I’m not flat busted.

That’s an error because the comma indicates an interruption or separation in thought, and the first of the two thoughts in the sentence ends with the word broke.

Oops!  Well, in her defense, CTP wasn’t around when the Governor was in college, and such t-shirts were commonly mass-produced and purchased pre-printed.  The fact is, she didn’t have the chance to Coin That Phrase properly as she could today, once someone explained to her what a web site is.

You, however, were born in the right time and have no such limitations: Coin Those Phrases and Coin ‘em right!  The national political career you launch is riding on it!