Oh, The Grammar

I was at the dollar store yesterday, and, like everyone else, they have put out their Christmas stuff. Actually, they're a little better than everyone else, because I think they wait until after Halloween to put it out. Since they're a small store, they don't have room to have both Halloween and Christmas out at the same time like they're Jack Skellington or something. They keep selling their Halloween up to the end, so wait for Christmas until after.

I know tons of people hate that early arrival of holidays thing. I can sympathize somewhat. When they have the Christmas trees up in August, that's egregious, and it irks me. Christmas stuff on November 1st does not. I love Christmas, and I don't mind decorating a before Thanksgiving. For one, it takes a long time and is a lot of work, so you want it up as soon as you can. Otherwise, it feels like it's not worth the effort. I feel the same about Halloween. September 1st is the cutoff for how early you can start putting up skulls and gravestones in my book.

Anyhow, this post isn't about that. I'm talking about the dollar store. They had their Christmas stuff out, and they have a new addition this year. They have sets of battery operated strings of light emitting diodes. Some called them L.E.D.s or more commonly these day, people omit the periods on abbreviations like that, particularly ones that can be pluralized, and just write LEDs.

I don't know what the Chicago Style Guide says, or the AP style guide, or even the great Strunk and White. I don't think it matters, really. It's just the common usage these days. You could do the periods, or you could skip the periods, but the one thing you can't do is this:

It's weird, because the packages of the lights use all lower case letters. Weird, but at least it is uniform and understandable. Why does the box capitalize just the first letter? Hey, dummies, that makes it into a different word. Led is the past tense of the verb to lead. I led you down the primrose path, for example. If you put only the first letter in caps, then you make it into a word, not an abbreviation, guys.

The funny thing, as I was saying, is that they didn't do that every time. The packages above used all lower case letters. Then there was this box just below the one I took the picture of:

Now it's all caps, even the word lights. Lights doesn't have to be in caps, but it's not an error for that to happen, and now LED is not incorrect. The funny thing is that, if you look at the packages in this second box, we have yet another different version (why are they redesigning the packaging so much? These are supposed to be cheap, wouldn't that cost more?). 10 LED Lights. At last, they nailed it. LED is treated as an abbreviation and lights is treated as an actual word. Gold star for that one.

Of course, there's the metal, lead, that is pronounced like the past tense of the verb led. This is incorrect, but every time I see somebody do the LED abbreviation, I think that they are telling us that the lights are actually made of the metal lead...that sounds like led. Generally, that's just me being facetious. But in this case, to get lights like this for as cheap as this, it's probably true. They probably came the same factories that we've seen various recalls for over the years.

There's a saying in China. It's this:

能骗就骗

 As long as I'm not being deceived by an incorrect internet post, those characters translate to, "If you can cheat, then cheat." It's a mindset that is common in China, apparently. I learned about it from these guys who have lived in China for several years, and now do this show on YouTube called The China Show. I figured I'd throw in this video that I cued to a spot where they are showing what could happen to you if you get your hands on a poorly made product that somebody has cheated in the creation.

It's funny to see the look of surprise on the people's faces when their products crumble in their hands. 

I usually have to pay something like $3.50 for a set of LEDs for my Christmas trees that I put up with my toys as part of my Christmas decorations. I often wait until the day after Christmas, and get the lights on sale at 50% off or more, and then get the lights for closer to dollar store prices, but these sets are only $1.25. Maybe I should get them now, at the start of the season for less? Nah. The LEDs might actually be lead, and I can skip the poisoning by skipping the purchase. 

Or, even more likely, they might not have proper wiring going on, and will catch fire or something. The last thing I need is to burn down my house because I wanted to save $2 on a set of lights. Sometimes it actually pays to buy the name brand for quality.