I admit it: I’m a bit of a grammar Nazi. It kicks in at its worst when I’m reading Facebook posts or Tweets and see the misuse of terms such as “your” and “you’re.” I’m more forgiving with “its” and “it’s” because even I will type out a sentence quickly and use lowercase or no hyphens or punctuations. But to tell someone “You’re house is on fire” is pretty much unacceptable and makes my teeth hurt.
It wasn’t too long ago on a drive home from Indiana to North Carolina that I noticed a sign on the side of the highway that got the better of me: “Speed strictly enforced by aircraft.”
Now, it might just be me, but isn’t that a bit of an error in predication? I mean, does an aircraft really ENFORCE the speed limit?
I looked around to see if there was indeed an airplane following me (there wasn’t). I was pretty sure I didn’t see any air craft make use of Romulan cloaking technology, appearing out of nowhere to issue a citation or zap and beam up speeders who zoomed 80 in a 55 MPH work zone.
I can see an aircraft assisting law enforcement officers who are enforcing the speed limit, but still do we citizens REALLY pay to have an aircraft fly over the highway – using up all that fuel – just to catch a few speeders?
Okay, I won’t nitpick on verbiage. Even if the signs did say “assist” instead of “enforce” I’d still make some snarky comment about helicopters, prop planes and jumbo jets pulling me over. What I found after some interweb-research is that some law enforcement agencies do indeed use air command to monitor speed limits (you know those white lines that cut across the highway? Yeah, well that’s part of the plan. If you make it from line A to line B too soon, then you’re probably speeding. And then a very nice officer will likely pull you over somewhere up ahead). We may not see this happening all the time in Happy Town USA population 2,000, but on major highways and interstates it’s a likelihood that the your speed limit is indeed enforced snitched on by monitored by aircraft.
I think it would have done better if the signs said, “Your Momma Knows You’re Speeding” or “Speed Limit Strictly Enforced By Lightning Bolts From Zeus.” Mmmaybe.