"Your in Steeler Country!"

You'd have to be dead not to know that the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl last night, their sixth such victory. That victory gives their fans bragging rights for another year, and then some. Unfortunately, the win doesn't give the fans any more literacy.

For the past two or thirty weeks, black and gold signs have covered the Steel City, proclaiming, not the greatness of the Pittsburgh Symphony and its success in a recent visit to China, but the prowess of the local football team. One sign on a store window, proudly exclaimed, "Your in Steeler Country!" That should be expected, you might say, from the demographic that reveres professional football. After all, what's knowledge of an apostrophe compared to an understanding of a quarterback draw?

"Ho-hum," you say. "You're just a bunch of constipated English teachers." In fact, some pundit once said that when English teachers come together they reduce all of the world's issues to matters of grammar. That might be so. It certainly pains English teachers to see signs that say, "Lets go Steelers!" We can tolerate the signs, but can't we at least put some commas and apostrophes in them? And, spelling? One sign on East Ohio Street in Pittsburgh's North Side proudly bragged, "We love the Stealers!" Maybe it's headquarters for Shoplifters Anonymous!

The USA made much to do about the Super Bowl; but, remember, when you visit this blog, "Your in Grammar Country!" So, arm yourself with commas, semi-colons and apostrophes, lest you are penalized ten yards for illegal use of the hands!