Thursday, July 12, 2007

Today's hint: Check the spelling before you get the tattoo (non-grumpy content)

A few days ago I was playing in a Texas Hold 'Em tournament at Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin). The guy on my left was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, so the tattoos on his upper arms were hard to miss. The person on his left asked him about them, and he said that he had just had them done a week ago. I couldn't see the ones on his left arm very well, but it was a series of playing cards. On his right arm I could see an ace, under which was written "Hold Em'."
The guy on the left asked how much the tattoos had cost, and the response was $450. I was feeling a bit cheeky, so I asked, "How much are you going to sue the tattoo artist for, for putting the apostrophe in the wrong place?"

The puzzled look said it all: This guy had no idea. He said, "What do you mean?"

I pointed out that the apostrophe represents the missing "th" in what would otherwise be "Hold Them," and belongs before the "em," not after. I was a bit worried at this point, because the tattoos were atop some pretty massive muscles. I didn't want him to feel any urge to kill the messenger.

But he looked at the errant tattoo, shrugged, said, "Whatever," and turned back to the game. I guess this shouldn't be surprising--after all, if he were inclined to care about punctuation, he presumably wouldn't have let the mistake be made in the first place.

I got knocked out in about the middle of the pack, but Mr. Tattoo was one of the top finishers, so I guess you don't have to know how to spell or write "Hold 'Em" to be able to play it.

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