Rolling tippy
Celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Dutch dropping by New York City produced this ‘Dutch tinted’, amusingly formulated warning sign.
I tread carefully because the English is written properly and understandable, but could have been formulated more ’cause and effect’ and much less passive.
Bench will tip if rolled. Bench tips when rolled. You get my drift.
“Governor’s island, the celebration seemed to include some really wonderful Dutch design, including these fantastic benches with wheels, apparently designed by Dutch designer Rogier Martens.”
(Photo: Kate)
Tags: design, New York City, warning sign
September 17th, 2009 at 8:31 am
There is nothing wrong with the use of “tippy”. See http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tippy
September 17th, 2009 at 8:39 am
I never said there was.
September 17th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
It’s not so much passive as impersonal. What surprise me is that they allowed the benches at all, even with the warning, and that the idea wasn’t nixed as a liability lawsuit waiting to happen.
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 am
“bench is tippy when rolling” makes it sound like the bench rolls itself…but WATCH OUT, it’s ALL OVER THE ROAD!!! like it’s a drunk bench swerving all around. in english (at least american english) we don’t really use the -ing construction for inanimate objects, but instead we use the -ed.
it should read “bench may tip when rolled” because that implies that the rolling is being done to the bench by a person. saying “when rolling” implies the bench is doing the rolling itself. because since -ing is always preceded by “is” or “am,” it just makes it sound like the bench is really active and is like, “i’m rolling, man!”
beyond that, while m-w.com says tippy is a word, i have never heard a new yorker say it, unless they insert an s to imply that they wobble because they’re drunk.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:02 am
@Larry: What surprises me is that you wrote “What surprise me” Need a new keyboard?