One Of Toronto's Awkwardly Worded City Signs Got Trolled By Merriam-Webster On Twitter
"Reword this sign to make it sound less weird."
Torontonians who like to do word puzzles, rise up, because Merriam-Webster just came up with a fill-in-the-blanks puzzle for one of Toronto's most interestingly worded signs.
Merriam-Webster took Twitter on January 12 to quiz their followers with a friendly word puzzle game (not quite like Wordle, but definitely something crossword fanatics will still vibe with).
"Writing puzzle #5. Reword this sign to make it sound less weird," the tweet began, accompanied by a Toronto municipal code sign that reads, "Dogs that dig holes must have owners fill them in immediately."
"The preferred (but not the only) solution will fill in these blanks: 'Owners ___ ___ fill ___ ___ ___ dig'," the tweet finished.
Writing Puzzle #5. \n\nReword this sign to make it sound less weird. \n\nThe preferred (but not the only) solution will fill in these blanks:\n\u201cOwners ___ ___ fill ___ ___ ___ dig\u201dpic.twitter.com/T09EEDGnDM— Merriam-Webster (@Merriam-Webster) 1642012838
While it could be "Owners must immediately fill holes their dogs dig," others on Twitter showed there are way more comedic answers to this puzzling word conundrum.
"'Owners must fill holes their dogs dig.' You're looking for eight words, but I got it down to seven. However, I *can* get it down to six: 'Don't let your dog dig, @$$hole'" one Twitter user wrote. Woof.
Another replied, "Owners that have dogs must immediately fill holes in them, dig?" No diggity, no doubt.
If the sign were re-written by a language-proficient dog, it would read:\n\n"Owners must not fill holes that dogs dig"\n\nIf written by a Parks Board authority, it could be written:\n\n"Owners must immediately fill holes their dogs dig"— English-speaking \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6ian (@English-speaking \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6ian) 1642091893
One even pretended to write it from the perspective of the dog, and suggested a possible answer to the word puzzle could be "Owners must not fill holes that dogs dig."
Some even went for a more simplistic, potentially confusing approach.
"Undig dug dog holes," one user wrote.
Other users threw jabs at the sign itself, noting how the city's wording puts the responsibility on dogs to tell their owners to do the right thing.
The City of Toronto's Municipal Code #608 deals with all parks-related affairs from general code of conduct, proper use of parks to organized sports and activities, animals, and trees.