Thursday
May132010
Jen GraduRants
May 13, 2010 It's getting about that time again. You know the one, don't you?
Thaaat's right! The one where Wreckerators wrestle with the seemingly simple "Congratulations."For some reason, various unholy alliances of the words "graduation" and "congratulations" keep popping up:
"Gratulation"
"Gradulation"
"Congraduations"(Your soul dies a little more with each one of these, doesn't it?)
"Whatever this says."
"Happy Graduations"?!?Oh. Wait. Actually, that's almost correct. I wonder if someone forgot the "L."
There's a theory floating around that some of these word mash-ups are intentional; a "cute" misspelling to save the decorator from writing out the overly long and excessively complicated "congratulations graduate."
To this I say: [rude noise].
Good grief, people, you're celebrating an educational achievement! This is not the time for "cutesy" misspellings! So just write out "Congrats" and be done with it! That's not so hard, is it?!?
Excuse me. [sound of head hitting desk repeatedly] This may be a while.
In the meantime, enjoy your cake with the bottle of urine/beer on it.
(Either way, someone's getting pissed.) (Because in Britain "pissed" = "drunk." See? I'm even funny in different languages.*)
Shelby, Angie M., Briana G., D.H., Pam G., & Anony M., Gradu...Congalu...Gradcon...Uh. Good job!
* Yes. We know.
Reader Comments (162)
Oh yes.. and this unholy alliance seems to make people actually believe that the word "congratulations" actually contains a D. I seem to see it spelled as "congradulations" constantly... and 99% of the time nobody is graduating.. AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Anon @ 10:06,
Yeah we could have used "dialects" but it's funnier to think of British as a completely different language. But it does raise the question of whether a common language spoken with such a different dialect or accent should be considered a language on its own. Hmm.
john
For anyone who is ACTUALLY confused about the two words:
GRADUATE is related to GRADE. Both are spelled with D, from a root word meaning a step. Which step are you on? You just went up another step. Related terms: Gradual, gradient, gradation, etc.
CONGRATULATIONS is related to GRATEFUL, from a root meaning of pleasant or agreeable, so the word means something like "To wish joy together."
So as long as we can remember that "Graduate" is relevant to school here only, while "Congratulations" applies to lots of celebrations, it's not hard to sort out.
On the other hand, for some reason, there's no Wilton Cake Decorating Class in Latin or IndoEuropean word roots. Unreasonable people!
--Nonie
"Your soul dies a little more with each one of these, doesn't it?"
Just knowing that bakers everywhere will continue wreck these words forever makes my soul sad...
But knowing Jen will pick on them makes it a bit better. ;-)
At first I thought... Wait, what is that thing on the last cake supposed to be, a test tube? Anyway, at first I thought it was Pyramid Head's Great Knife. Then again, even if it was, it would still look poorly drawn.
I think the brown one says "Conggadubliona." I think it might be a country. Maybe that day was Conggadubliona Celebration Day?
Hahahahaa! #5 looks like ConGraduloliona
Oh man... I thought this was a really, really funny day in the world of cake wrecks, and then I got this in my inbox:
"Hello Graduands, As you know, Convocation for the School of Education is Wednesday, June 2 at 3pm. Each graduand's name is read aloud to family and friends who are in attendance."
The message goes on to explain that I should send the correct pronunciation of my name to them so that they get it right ;-)
you realise Britain and America both speak English yeah?
Just saying....
I'm a foreigner (DANISH, even!), and I can spell congratulations just fine. It's actually really sad to see just how spelling has gone down the drain for a lot of people - especially those using texting/IM English... Eugh...
Seriously. When you're at a point where most non-native English speaking college students (who probably has not spoken/written English for even half the years that these wreckers have!) write better English than a lot of adults who have English as their first language do, you KNOW it's getting bad. :P
That was supposed to be a flask of chemicals??? I thought it was a hand giving the middle finger!
The "Whatever This Says" cake has got to be one of my all-time favorites. I've decided that it says "Con Gradubliona"! Basically I nearly died laughing, especially because seeing it in type is even better than seeing it in frosting. And it just begs to be said out loud. Go ahead. Try it.