This got me into a load of shit.
Lets be honest, who doesn't laugh at a giant comedy penis? Whether it's on a road sign, in a French text book or scribbled on a Tory election campaign poster.

My mate has an etch-a-sketch so I drew a comedy penis on it and then handed it to my 2 year old daughter and took a picture of it. So to all intensive purposes it looked like she had drawn it.

Anyhooo I posted this picture on my FaceBook and all hell broke loose. 99% of my friends thought it was very funny (incidentally 99% of my friends who are parents thought it was very funny) but that 1% went postal. I was even accused of exposing my daughter to paedophilic images by my sister in law.

Mad.
( The only Dave is pushing things forward, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 8:53, 7 replies)

intents and purposes
not intensive purposes, honestly what did you think that meant?

no comment on the story, other than i don't think it that funny.
(zenmeban thinks the weather could be better, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 9:16, closed)

Indents on porpoises, surely

( flatfrog Staring vacantly into space, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 9:28, closed)

Well it's nice to know that the Pedantic Guardian of Phrases and Grammar...
..is here to protect us all. I shall sleep snug as a dog in a rug tonight.
( The only Dave is pushing things forward, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 9:41, closed)

i get a title now? :)

(zenmeban thinks the weather could be better, Sat 24 Jul 2010, 19:37, closed)

Haven't you ever seen relaxed purposes?

( flake has nothing against your right leg, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 9:55, closed)

Maybe an answer to last weeks QotW
but I used to say "intensive purposes" until one day it clicked that it made no sense. I guess many people are guilty of tripping out turns of phrase without stopping to think what the words actually mean.
Anyway - I still live in fear that it will slip out again as my brain is hard-wired to get this wrong.
(Baa Lamb, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 10:10, closed)

Misphrased
I once saw an extended internet "discussion" in which somone (probably an ignorant 12 year-old) used the phrase "you reap what you sew." When it was pointed out to him that this made no sense at all he spent a good few pages insisting that his version was just as valid as the one that actually meant something. Arse.
(flimflam_machine, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 12:39, closed)