I just got off the phone with UPS — someone mailed a package to my office without specifying which floor of the building to send it to. I’m not exactly sure how they tracked down my phone number, but I suppose it’s better not to ask. Anyway, I was trying to explain to the lady how to spell “Ziff-Davis” without much success:
“Z-I-F-F D-A-V-I-S.”
“So that’s V as in Van…”
“No, Z. As in Zebra. Z-I-F-F D-A-V-I-S. Ziff-Davis Media.”
“Ziff-Davis what?”
“Mee-dee-uh.”
“OK, so that’s Z as in Xylophone….”
That’s when I gave up.
Finally, someone who gets my plight! I’ve been a linguist for six-bloody-years; one can’t really comment on the state of the American education system quite like a person who deals with words and language on a daily basis. I may not be a paragon for good grammar; but, I feel your pain.
Wouldn’t it be spelling rather than grammar? Grammar is the conditioning of diction while spelling is the semantics of it.
Anywho, I appreciate the prevalence of cell phones for the fact that if the other person just doesn’t get it, you can text the spelling. ‘Course, if she has a hard time with a brain bender like Xylophone the workings of mobile electronics probably blows her tiny mind.
Nah, it’s a Ben Mo quote.
More specifically, it’s a 10-year-old injoke that maybe three people reading this site will understand. That’s really specifically, actually.
Pedantic Pete makes me cry.
Well, I count at least two of us.
In a rather round-about way, the title led me to rediscover Andrea’s fan art, which is awesome. Hooray for ancient internet shenanigans.
Make that three.
Now, if you pronounced it “zed” like you’re supposed to this would never have been a problem.
Having that song no longer rhyme is a small price to pay.
Maybe it was a ploy to get you to give up?
You guys have direct contact with the mail people??
I work over at Ziff on the east coast, and it comes complete with a mailroom of the highest incompetence. I had an overnight package try to come my way in early December, only to sit down there in the abyss for two weeks.
Glad to know it’s not just a trademark of our side – and I won’t let this digression extend to the crack security team. They might just deserve a whole other post entirely.
No, this was an interaction with someone at UPS.
geez, next you’ll reprint The Color War or something