Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Can you please explain what this sentence means?

“Burgers proudly ruled the American menu throughout its tenure.”

Anyone?

7 comments:

JB said...

Don't you remember when Miester Burger owned the Restaurant American.

No one could make any menu changes without clearing it with him.

I hope Shane reads this.

-jb

Bret Thorn said...

You must mean Miester Burgers, with an ‘s’ (or possibly Meister Burgers).
And even then, the “its” makes no sense. Burgers according to your speculation would require a “his.” Otherwise it needs a “their.”

JB said...

Come on, its a good conjecture.

Face it, even I write better then that.

Bret Thorn said...

Oh, it’s terrific conjecture. The fact that even your creativity can’t fully bring sense to the sentence just proves how terrible it is.
By the way, it’s part of a sentence that was in a press release sent to me by a casual dining chain. It’s supposed to be a quote from one of the chain’s executives, but I suspect a 22-year-old flunky was putting words in his mouth.

JB said...

My father would mark up things like that with a red pen and sometimes send them back.

And Dennis feels he can't actually order until he finds a english or spelling mistake on a menu, according to him, there is one on every menu.

Anonymous said...

Ah, now I see. The other interpretation is that "Burger" is a fictional character used in common marketing materials, such that the Meister Burgers ruled the menu - much like Big Mac or Mayor McCheese rule McDonaldland. (Or at least, used to rule, until the edamame came in.)

That way, the 'its' could colloquially stand, since it's a character and not a real person with gender. A stretch, I'm sure, and one proabably far too crazy and detailed for the average press release writer for a food chain to even consider.

I do like the image of a press writer putting words into a chef's mouth, especially in the food industry, where you could imagine it literally.

Joe DiStefano said...

Whether "Burgers" is meant to read as an individual or a menu item, one thing is clear: the tenure of the American menu has run its course, at least in the myopic opinion of whatever flack vomited up such copy. I'd love to know what chain put this release out.