Saturday, October 15, 2011

Overread in a Trip Advisor Restaurant Review...

"Lovely ship, nice tex mex food, v filling. Lamb chop's good."


Is it really too much trouble to spell out the word "very" when doing a restaurant review? What happened to verbal spit and polish? Can't be bothered? English writing skills are in decline. V much so.

4 comments:

Joe said...

I always thought the 'v' meant versus as in Ali v Foreman.

VW said...

Actually, what you are protesting is a Wodehousism, one of the practices of the British humor writer P.G. Wodehouse.

It was his habit to sometimes allow his narrative to abbreviate a word, for purposes of style rather than brevity. Hence, "plunging a fork through the eggs and b.," or "This cocktail is v.g." It's a form of slang. Certainly not worth protesting; in the age of the wireless text, there are worse crimes.

BallBounces said...

It does, so the first time I read this review I misread it. Context indicates it must mean very here. People are importing their texting habits into other forms of writing. Not a good sign!

BallBounces said...

VW. A very erudite comment, but I expect a Wodehousism would have been beyond this commentator. And it doesn't quite follow the "rules" of a Wodehousism. Did you know Wodehouse used to work for HSBC?

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"