ornoth

So I’m onsite at a company that makes vaccines. And like anywhere that does medical stuff, they’re given promo items from drug companies. So when I needed a sticky note, I grabbed one. It said the following (italics and color theirs):

This fall, think pneu.
That makes sense.

That makes sense? Uhh… no, it doesn’t. Why is autumn a particularly auspicious time to think about tires? In French, no less! And it’s a stupid word to begin with; who puts “pn” together with no vowel and calls that a single phoneme?

Well, actually… If you think about “pn” words—and there’s really only two kinds in English—you’ll eventually figure out what those sticky notes were advertising. But it’s still pretty bizarre that they’d choose the abbreviated “think pneu” and assert “that makes sense”. Freaks.