The route we travel to so many places takes us past our local Steak 'n Shake. While I certainly admire that eating establishment's steakburgers with cheese, skinny but crisp fries, and--yes--milkshakes, I cringe every time we pass by because of this:
"Open 24 hours"
For the people driving by on M6 at 3 am who can indulge their craving for a double chocolate fudge or turtle caramel nut shake (now I want one), this is a wonderful thing, but, please, Steak 'n Shake, lose the quotation marks.
As an English major-now-editor, I'm coming to the conclusion that people should have to get a license to use quotation marks. When I see the quotation marks around "Open 24 hours," it indicates one of the following:
1. Someone else is saying that Steak 'n Shake is open 24 hours.
2. It's a joke--Steak 'n Shake is not open 24 hours; in fact, used this way, it's probably only open two or three hours a day.
So Steak 'n Shake, these are the situations in which you would use quotation marks, and I'm thinking that these would rarely come up on your sign:
1. When you are indicating that someone else is saying something:
Annette said, "I would like to go to Steak and Shake to have a turtle caramel shake." Truer words were never spoken.
Note that the words the person is actually saying are enclosed in quotation marks. A comma goes before, and end punctuation usually goes inside. The exceptions are question marks sometimes (a subject for another lesson) and semicolons and colons.
2. When you are using a term ironically:
I just had a "healthy" meal at Steak 'n Shake that included a turtle caramel shake and french fries.
3. When you are referring to a word as a word:
A "classic melt" at Steak 'n Shake has nothing to do with ice; it involves meat and melted cheese on toast.
So Steak 'n Shake, why don't you just get rid of the set of quotation marks that came with the letters for your sign? I'm hard pressed to think of a situation where you would need them for your purposes. Unless there's something you want to tell us about your "steak" burgers . . .
