High School Athletics Shirt Designers: Please Stop Killing Semantics

by Jenny McCoy on August 17, 2009

I saw a woman wearing a high school athletic team shirt the other day.

It read:

LOSERS MAKE PROMISES
WINNERS MAKE COMMITMENTS


Right.

Let’s compare.

Promise (n). A declaration assuring that one will or will not do something; a vow.

Commitment (n). Something pledged, especially an engagement by contract involving financial obligation.

Despite the book smart comments I make on a regular basis, I did fairly well in my college logic class.

Actually, I aced that shit.

And I remember that if A=C and B=C, then A=B=C.*

I wonder what this team’s record is.

And I also feel bad that they have to sport shirts highlighting a semantic tragedy.

Rather than exploit puns and innuendos.

You know, like softball shirts that read “We know how to play the field.” Or volleyball shirts that read “We practice safe sets.”

Poor kids.

*Please contact me immediately if that actually does not make sense. Wow, that’d be quite embarrassing to most people. Good thing I thrive on self-deprecating humor..

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