It’s one of the simplest rules of punctuation, and yet one of the most frequently ignored by the writers and editors at Yahoo!. This time the offense appears on the Yahoo! front page, where millions of people can point and laugh:
The rule is simple: A question mark goes before a closing quotation mark if it is part of the quoted matter. In this case, it’s not. The title of the movie is not “Bling Ring?” The entire phrase is the question: Real-life ‘Bling Ring’?
I don’t want to even think about where the writer’s head was when he wrote this headline for Yahoo! Sports‘ “Big League Stew”:
The expression is “head over heels” and it means “to roll, as in a somersault.”
You know what would be better than this from Yahoo! Screen‘s “Daily Shot”? If the writer had taken the time to learn how to spell Steve Carell’s name. And if the writer had taken the time to figure out how to write a link:
You’d think that someone working for one of the biggest Internet companies in the world would know how to do both.
Looking for a slightly used shirt? A well-worn pair of trousers? If you’re not to proud to steal, you can get it free by raiding a closet. And Yahoo! Shopping suggests you raid your father’s closet:
Of course, if you merely want to see the kinds of clothing he prefers, you could just peek in his closet.
I don’t know if the writer or editor is responsible for this headline on Yahoo! TV, but whoever wrote this shows a total disregard for accuracy:
The guy’s name is Ricky Gervais.
Anyone who lived in the States in the ’70s and owned a television is familiar with this ditty:
My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R.
My bologna has a second name, it’s M-A-Y-E-R.
Oh I love to eat it every day. If you ask me why I’ll say,
‘Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.
So, I’m guessin’ that the writer for Yahoo! Shine grew up in Somalia or Djibouti or Mumbai or some place where they’re unlikely to eat Oscar Mayer meats or see the Wienermobile:
How great a job is this!? You write about shoes for Yahoo! Shopping and you don’t have to know anything about shoes:
Well, maybe you do have to know something. You just don’t have to know how to spell the brand Skechers.
Was the writer for yahoo.com thinking of astronaut Alan Shepard or playwright Sam Shepard when writing this?
The dog breed is German shepherd.
See that guy on the left in this picture from Yahoo! Shine? That’s Gordon Ramsay.
See the photo caption under the picture? That’s wrong.
Even a 5-year-old would know that there’s a hyphen missing from this caption on Yahoo! Shine:
