Saturday, June 07, 2008

Viola! or Mrs. Malaprop strikes again

In today's NY Times Jeff Danziger has the following cartoon:

Just one problem - a viola (with or without an exclamation mark) is either a. a somewhat obscure name for a violet b. a four stringed musical instrument slightly larger than a violin c. someone who plays said instrument or d. a Shakespearean heroine.

The word Mr. Danziger is looking for, I suspect, is voila!, unless there's some extremely subtle joke about either a. American cars being held together by four strings or b. people who drive eco-friendly cars being shrinking violets that I'm not getting.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've seen a lot of people confuse them. But NY Times! Is proofreading dead then?

maisnon said...

I think it's purposefully done - look at the person doing the exclaiming.

Anonymous said...

:-)) I think so too. Its pbly on purpose.Whatever that is, beats me though!

Anonymous said...

omg nooo u guys dont get it... viola! is an exclamation which is pronounced vwala!