I have a Sharpie and I know how to use it. But there is a line, and having worked for the NPS for a number of years, you live with errors on historic signs or publications--they're considered historic and charming.

If the message got through, that is the first chore of Language--Grammar is its handmaiden. Grammar is manners, an accepted way of saying a thing.

My crimes are small. For example, there are a number of Wendy's restaurants in the area owned by one franchise. At each of their drive-through menu boards with the mic and speaker there was a small beveled plastic sign that said "Checks Not Excepted." That means they won't make an exception of checks, they will, in fact, accept them. But that isn't what they intended to say. Several times I drove through and told them they should change the sign (a small copy also was on the glass at the cashier's booth).

As a charter member (MA, 1999) of the Professional Organization of English Majors (POEM--thanks, Garrison!) I got tired of looking at it (I like their Crispy Chicken 5-piece, no sauce) so I started stepping out of the truck and doing this with my Sharpie:

                   Accepted   
Checks Not Excepted

I even got the drive through cashier's sign on one occasion when he stepped away. Those stupid signs had been there for more than two years, but after I hit four or five restaurants, they all disappeared within a couple of months. There may be a connection.

SRS