Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
The Daily Photoist: November 23, 2009
Transit City and Transit Cities
We can only hope that these sanctions succeed where the concerted efforts of the United Nations have so often failed. Still, we wonder what this poor baby grand piano did to deserve such harsh treatment. Shoppers in the Bay's Yonge & Bloor store seem to be respecting the sanctions—sternly enforced by a half-dozen stanchions—but it's only a matter of time before some ne'er-do-well tries to slip a tuning fork or music book past the blockade.
Also, this is where we would normally insert some kind of snide remark about the folly of relying on spell checkers, especially if you're going to highlight your error in bold.
Photos by Val Dodge.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
The word sanction in this case must meann limitation on the piano--as in not touching it.
Sanction has a two-edged meaning.
Boxing matches can be sanctioned by a licensing body and there can be trade sanctions against a nation or entity.
I believe they're trying to use the latter sense of the word instead of asking you to not touch the instrument.
I liked the sign I saw on a BR train. It said "End of coach passenger area". That's more polite than saying "First class passengers only beyond this point".
It's all in the wording.
David Toronto: They meant to say "stanchion."
But that makes no sense. Sanctions does mean rules or laws, yeah, but there are none named here other than "be courteous," which would make the other half of the sentence totally redundant and weird. How do you obey the law when it doesn't exist? You're being awfully stanchimonious, David Toronto.
(My reply was directed at David's comment, not Marc's)