Linguistic Hamburger

What is hamburger? Meat that has not only been butchered but ground up into an unrecognizable mass.

As a general rule, we Americans are lousy at learning languages -- even our own! I am not that surprised when I see spelling and grammatical errors in online chatting and forums. We never know what level of education folks have obtained. Nor does spelling and grammar come easily to everyone, regardless of their position or educational background.

I occasionally come across something that is very obviously wrong, redundant or just funny. And I have to share! Here are my contributions for the day:

-- from dictated medical notes (rephrased):

"PAST MEDICAL HISTORY:
The patient has a history of (a disease or condition) in the past."

"We will keep her overnight for 23-hour observation so we can watch her."

(They must work for the Department of Redundancy Department.)

-- from an author's biographical information in the back of a novel:

"She... later became the mother of three sons and an elementary school teacher."

Ouch! As my daughter said, "I hope she didn't have a ruler in her hand!"