After residing in “St Johns Close” in the west Kent town of Turnbridge Wells for 14 months, Stefan Gatward couldn’t live with the punctuation laxity any longer. So the 62-year-old accountant bought a can of paint and corrected the signs to read “St John’s Close,” the Telegraph reports. Response from neighbours has been mixed. Some praised his initiative but one called him a “vandal and graffiti artist.” Gatward remains unrepentant: “I think one should stand up for things and language is worth standing up for. The trouble is that everything is dumbed down now.”
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Contrary to popular belief, the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremonies is, in fact, a decidedly modern affair. The culmination of the torch relay in a grandiose display at the Opening Ceremonies is a relic of the 1936 Berlin Games—just one of many attempts by the Nazi regime to lend a mythical air to the Games. Still, despite its dubious history, the lighting of the cauldron has evolved into one of the most spectacular and ostentatious displays at the Games. And the secretiveness that surrounds the lead-up to the ceremony only lends to the hype.
When it comes to the 2010 Games, the speculation about who will be selected to light the cauldron has coalesced around whether VANOC will go the traditional route and opt for a former Olympian or take the road less-travelled and pick someone from outside the sports world. Facebook groups have popped up promoting everyone from Terry Fox’s mother, Betty, to former Vancouver Canucks captain Trevor Linden. So far, Vancouver’s Olympic organizers have kept a tight lid on who the potential candidates might be. We’ve assembled a list of the names making the rounds, but feel free to add your own in the poll or in the comments below.
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if he visits Canada he is going to run out of paint fixing all the Tim Horton's
I interviewed Stefan Gatward, the Apostrophe Man of Tunbridge Wells for The Sunday Telegraph. He was kind enough to show me round his home town, pointing out all the erroneous street signs.
My story prompted our readers to submit hundreds of photographs of badly written and ungrammatical street and shop signs, providing an extremely amusing and successful running joke for the paper.
Patrick Sawer
The Sunday Telegraph