Buckle up, we care about you (really!)

Language matters.

Walking down the street near Belmont Ave. today, I noticed the following sign at the exit of an apartment complex’s parking lot. The sign caught my eye for its choice of words and for its callous connotation. Can you guess why?

 

Thanks for caring

Hint:

Tenant=person who lives at the place

Tenancy=agreement to pay rent in exchange for the right to live there

There is a subtle, but very important, difference between saying “we value your tenancy” and “we value our tenants.” By valuing tenancy, the sign implies that they want you to buckle up so that you can pay your rent. I am sure (well, I hope) that whoever wrote the sign for American Property Management intended to say they value their tenants but made a mistake in the writing/editing process. Surely, they care about the people that live in the apartments, right?

It could be an innocent mistake, or perhaps it was a Freudian slip.

Then again, maybe they were just being honest.

Coffee Fest Recap Part 1

If you’ve read my last couple posts, you know that I spent this past weekend at Coffee Fest in Seattle. One of the reasons I wanted to go to the show was to see the city itself. It had been a long time (8 years or so) since I visited the Emerald City, and I had forgotten how much bigger Seattle is. Seattle’s downtown area has a lot more people and quite a bit more traffic.

Like Portland, Seattle has a reputation for being rainy, but when the sun is out (as it was on Friday afternoon), it is a beautiful city. On a clear day you can see the Olympic Mountains to the West and Mount Rainier to the East. Located on Puget Sound, Seattle has a number of inlets and lakes that carve up the city.

Nothing but blue sky, at least for one day

Read More

Gigibar: A Linguaphile’s Café (closed)

I went to Gigibar the other day out at the corner of 60th and SE Division to drink some coffee and to meet with a fellow MIM graduate, David Hubbard. I arrived around 10:30am, and had the café to myself when I arrived. Gigi, the owner, greeted me and asked what I wanted to drink. I asked her about her espresso and she told me it was Bella Selva, an organic coffee roasted by K&F Coffees, a Portland company. She said it was a lighter roast that was kind of chocolaty. I ordered a double ($2) and went to sit down. The coffee was nice and toasty, not over-extracted or bitter. 

Gigibar

Read More