Monday, January 16, 2006

Campbell adds acute accent mark to campaign signs; Bauer responds with umlaut

Below: Political signs tainted
by questionable symbols
Violation of time-honored language rules upsets some

B & P News - Columbia

In a new brand of political gamesmanship, Lt. Governor-candidate Mike Campbell this week added an acute accent mark to his Campbell’s Soup-style campaign signs. Lt. Governor Andre Bauer responded with his own new diacritical mark -- a prominent umlaut.

“This is clearly a case of accent-mark envy,” said Bauer in a telephone interview with B & P News. “We saw this last election when Leventis put a tilde over his N. It wasn’t even pronounceable.”

Campbell responded to the claim of diacritic envy by saying, "Is not," and then offering, "He started it."

While the exchange between the Bauer and Campbell camps seems to have stalemated for now, some people -- including Governor Mark Sanford -- worry that political candidates are using too much discretion with their signs.

“What is up with the ‘V’ in Lovelace? It’s a weird blue shape, like maybe a slice of pizza," noted Sanford. "He’s a doctor -- what if he goes to administer an IV and he inserts an ‘I-blue pizza’ instead? Sounds like malpractice to me.”

Some South Carolina voters are also wary of the trend, and prefer candidates who opt for more traditional signs.

"I've always liked Jakie Knotts 'cause he sticks with plain ol' letters," said Lexington resident Duke Murray. "Not all them fancy vowels and whatnots."

Educators agree that the signs could send the wrong message, especially to our schoolchildren.

“I’ve always worried about politicians taking our liberty,” said Dreher High School English teacher Jessamine Flowers. “But now, they’re taking liberties with the language I love to teach.”

14 comments:

earlcapps said...

I wonder what Vince Neil and the rest of Mötley Crüe would say about this, and which candidate they would be more likely to endorse?

JFH said...

I don't find that accent mark "cute" at all!

earlcapps said...

jfh - can't you take a freakin' joke?

Laurin Manning said...

Actually, Earl, I think JFH was referring to the fact that the accent mark is an "acute" accent.

Thoroughbred 401k said...

This is a bandwagon that I need to get on. From now on instead of my name, I will be using :) . That should help people from calling me Rhino. Earl, I think Motley Crue are Libertarians.

Mike :)

Anonymous said...

Actually, Motley Crue are Republicans.

earlcapps said...

Ok, Lauren, I admit it, I'm jealous because I can't have dots over my name like Mötley Crüe does, since I have no "o" or "u" in my name.

Mike, better get that spelling right there. Dot those letters, or else.

Laurin Manning said...

I've always wanted an umlaut over my "u"! It's definitely the cutest accent. It also makes a little smiley face!

JFH said...

Eárl, Láürìn was correct... she obviously knows what a weak sense of humor I have.

Anonymous said...

Really, no website should be this hilarious without a license -- or at least a warning label.

You should raise money to run ads against Sanford. I would contribute just to see what you come up with.

Thoroughbred 401k said...

Earl,
I'm sorry, my keyboard only speaks English. You know, the umlauts came from a crazy night of drinking Lowenbrau...By the way, thanks for the directions...

earlcapps said...

The Crue was famous for Shout at the Devil. Andre for Shout at the Cop. But be careful, or Ozzy will bite the head off the pig.

Anonymous said...

How do you make the accent marks over the o and u? Just on a regular keyboard I can figure it out.

Anonymous said...

i meant can't*