In journalism you get (sic) a lot.

No, not swine-flu sick – although I heard a rumour that such a virus might be making the rounds – but sic.

Three letters – Latin for "as such" – surrounded by parentheses that, in journalism parlance, essentially mean one thing:

Not my fault.

The term is used, in print, to highlight an error made by somebody else, so as to absolve the journalist of blame for the typo. To say to the reader, "It was like that when I got here!"

If, for example, a politician was to make a spelling mistake in a press release, and that passage was quoted in a news story, said passage would carry with it the (sic) tag. Sure, the reporter could probably fix it, but in the interest of accuracy, they usually don't. Besides, it's more fun to point out others' screw-ups, anyhow.

So while I'm well-versed with the term at work, I've lately discovered I've become quite a stickler for spelling outside the office, too.

It's gotten so bad that my friends refer to me these days as the Grammar Police – and I was once promoted to Captain Grammar, after I went as far as to correct somebody in a Facebook status.

Well, I'm sorry. I know it's not a nice thing to do – I know it screams "I'm smarter than you!" – but I just can't help myself.

The mistakes are everywhere.

The misplaced consonants, rogue apostrophes, and the I's that aren't before the E's (except after C's, of course).

And not a (sic) to be found, which would, at the very least, be an acknowledgment that somebody somewhere knows something is wrong.

But before I officially stake my claim as the world's biggest nitpicker (which I'm sure comes complete with a trophy shaped like a wagging, disapproving finger), I'd like to point out that I'm well aware that nobody is perfect. Mistakes do get made.

You may be shocked to learn, in fact, that a few typos have even appeared occasionally in the sports section of the Peace Arch News (I'll pause here while you catch your breath).

So I get all that, and I've never been one to begrudge an honest mistake.

And with a growing number of us doing most of our typing in e-mails and text messages, it's understandable that proper English has taken a nose-dive into a sea of LOLs and BTWs and BRBs.

But the one place I absolutely can't ignore such mistakes is on signage. That's when I really let my Grammar Police badge shine bright.

I mean, signs usually have a limited number of words on them to begin with – we aren't exactly working with Dostoyevsky, here.

On a recent trip to Las Vegas, for example, I saw a kiosk advertising "Fremont Street Souvenir's" – there's an unnecessary possessive in souvenirs, if you couldn't tell.

I don't know how that got through the vetting stage, but there it was writ large, shining brightly among the gamblers and tourists, all of whom were having too good a time to be annoyed by such a small mistake.

And then there was me, grumbling to my travelling companion, wondering aloud how somebody could possibly be so dense.

And that's just one example; there's plenty more.

Sure, it's usually just a minor mistake, but considering these signs, designed by nature to catch the eye, have these words printed boldly in 6,000-point font, even a minor goof is a major one.

Of course, there's the possibility that these signs are created by people not aware of the finer points of grammar. Maybe they weren't forced to spend a semester of journalism school in a class dedicated solely to grammar and its many intricacies. A class which was taught, no less, by a woman so devoted to the cause that she wrote a book about it.

Or maybe they just don't care because it doesn't really matter. After all, poor punctuation or not, I still knew exactly what that Las Vegas stand was selling, even if I took my business elsewhere on principle alone.

So with that in mind, should you find any errors in this column, think twice before writing me in a huff. Maybe I put them there on purpose.

Or maybe it was like that when I got hear (sic).