Fun with Unnecessary Quotation Marks

 A lot of restaurants serve soups. But you know you’re in for a treat when you go to a place that serves “soups.” Pretty much any shanty selling fish can call itself a fish shanty. But there’s just something more special about the “Fish” Shanty. And, by the way, if you frequent a local business that’s closed on Wednesday, a sign telling you so can make it clear why the front door is locked. But a business that’s closed on “Wednesday” – well, who knows what surprises its door hinges can bring midweek.

These are just a few of the delights I found on a recent visit to UnneccessaryQuotes.com -- the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks -- which posts photos of signs with unnecessary quotation marks.

 I don’t advocate making fun of other people’s punctuation shortcomings. But some of these are just plain fun. And when you toss in the UnnecessaryQuotes.com headlines and comments, which ponders what could be meant by “soups,” “fish,” and “Wednesday” when they're in quotation marks, you just have to laugh.

For example, a sign that reads Because “We Care” on the blog bears the headline: We Care-ish.

The idea here is that, because one of the jobs of quotation marks is to call a word or phrase into question, "We Care" could mean that they don't.

 If you’re not quite sure how to use quotation marks, here’s a quick primer.

 The quotation mark’s main job is to indicate verbatim quotation. The mayor said, “Potholes will not stand.” The quotation can also be part of a sentence: The mayor said that the potholes downtown “will not stand.”

Quotation marks are also used to denote words referred to as words. That is, if you and I were talking about the word “ambience” or how people use the word “me” too often, that’s a valid use of quotation marks. (Even though some styles may recommend italics instead.)

 Finally, quotation marks can be used to show irony or doubt: Gee, what a “great” actor Matthew McConaughey is. And that’s what makes the signs so funny. Fish is just fish until you put it into quotation marks. That’s when you know it may be anything but fish.

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